


Last Train Home

by Camisado



Category: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Canon - Anime, Canon - Manga, Canon - OAV/OVA, F/M, Gen, NaNoWriMo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-12
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2017-11-25 06:36:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 67,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/636133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Camisado/pseuds/Camisado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With commitments in their world but the portal to Cephiro failing, will the Magic Knights choose Earth or New Cephiro? A mix of the best parts of both the anime and manga canon.<br/>19/08/16 - I have removed the latest chapter for personal reasons but please don't panic! I will update by the end of the year.<br/>[NaNoWriMo 2010 story]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Attending a Western-style wedding in the middle of the Japanese summer, Fuu Hououji absent-mindedly twirled the gold band on her right-hand ring finger. She realised what she was doing and stopped to study it, biting her lip slightly and blushing.

"Fuu-chan, Fuu-chan, they're exchanging rings!" Hikaru hissed excitedly, leaning into the aisle to watch.

Fuu smiled to herself and adjusted her position to see the new couple too. Umi was stood behind the bride with two other pretty girls, all in baby blue dresses. Her normally sleek, long blue hair was pinned up and curled. She made quite the picture; Fuu was often jealous of her natural beauty.

"Fuu-chan, what are you doing with that?" Hikaru whispered, mesmerised now by Fuu's continued fiddling with her jewellery. Cogs audibly turned in Hikaru's head; "Ahh, ahh, I get it; Fuu-chan is engaged! Who are you engaged to, Fuu-chan? Does Prince Ferio know?"

Fuu flushed a formerly uncharted shade of red.

"I mean, it would be cruel to lead him on if you have someone here in our world," Hikaru added, nodding sagely with her mature advice.

"Hikaru-san, this ring is from Fer- I mean, Prince Ferio," Fuu stuttered, hiding her face in her dark blonde curls.

Hikaru's expression indicated that she had not even begun to consider this as a possibility for a logical answer.

A quiet moment passed as the new married couple signed their names on an official register.

"Can I be a bridesmaid?" asked Hikaru.

Fuu smiled. In fact, she laughed quietly at her friend's concept of prioritisation, "Hikaru-san, we're not engaged. But this is the only finger the ring fits on, and I didn't want to put it on my left hand..."

Fuu recalled receiving the ring, the first and second time. The first time, on their first and most tragic visit to Cephiro, a very audacious and flirty Ferio had given the ring to her in the Forest of Silence. Flustered, she had kept it safely in the pocket of her school blazer until she returned home.

Although she had spent barely hours with Ferio as they travelled through the Forest of Silence, she was dismayed beyond belief when she discovered the ring was nowhere to be found back in Tōkyō. In the months they spent away from Cephiro, she had spent many evenings mourning the fate of Princess Emeraude, and wondering what had become of the boy she met in the Forest of Silence.

Their second meeting was a bittersweet surprise; Fuu had thought she was done with her crying by the time she and her two friends had resolved to return to Cephiro. However, upon being reunited with her suitor, he had shared the secret of his identity as Prince of Cephiro, and younger brother of the Princess she had assisted in killing...

And later that night, he had given her the ring again; placed it on her ring finger, telling her that she made him happier than anything, and asking her to smile for him.

Fuu Hououji had never even been in a relationship before, let alone pretty much proposed to - despite what she'd told Hikaru.

The days they visited New Cephiro since then had largely involved being with the others - Hikaru, Umi, Clef, Ascot, Lantis - she never found time to be alone with Ferio in order to ask him anything about how far their relationship went or what expectations he might have of her since this whole ordeal with the ring.

"But do you want to get married, Fuu-chan?"

Flustered, Fuu patted down her skirt as a distraction, "Well, Hikaru-san, I'm sure the time will come when I find the right man and decide to settle down with him...not for quite some time yet. I mean, I do have a lot of plans for education."

Hikaru sighed, amused, "Fuu-chan, you purposely misunderstood me...do you think Ferio will want you to marry him? Would you marry him?"

"I'm afraid I don't know right now, Hikaru-san," Fuu said quite firmly, but polite as always, "He does live in an entirely different universe..."

Hikaru smoothed out the creases in her own skirt. She had taken on a slightly cyberpunk style since her capture by Autozam, and this dress featured close resemblance of the sharp lines and modern jewellery of her costume from back on the NSX. She now looked Fuu square in the eyes, "Well, Fuu-chan; I hope you decide sooner rather than later."

Fuu was slightly astounded by the seriousness in the normally bubbly girl's voice. Hikaru was known for her moments of profound clarity, however. It was amazing, just looking at her, that this petite schoolgirl had once been judged the best leader for an entire country. It was especially hard to believe later, once Hikaru had started playing with the guests' children at the after-wedding party.

"You looked very beautiful today, Umi-san," Fuu smiled brightly to her friend, sitting down next to her with a drink.

Umi beamed in response, "Thank you, Fuu. You and Hikaru look very nice, too. But what were you both being so serious about during the ceremony? I could see your faces from the front of the venue..."

Fuu stared at her glass for a moment, then at her ring, then looked intently at Umi, "I think I would like to marry Prince Ferio."

"What...whoa whoa whoa, Fuu! What are you saying? I thought you were totally intent on going to university and all, getting a really good education, not being a teenage bride! Though I am jealous; he is quite the catch."

A giggle escaped Fuu's lips, "Well, he is. And I know, but we're not exactly taking the relationship very quickly, and-"

"So you haven't gone all the way?"

Fuu felt the heat rising in her face. She stared, like a deer caught in headlights, at her drink, "No, no! In fact, we really haven't even kissed...not on the lips...oh my, what am I saying?"

Her friend laughed, patting her on the shoulders, "That's amazing, Fuu! You haven't even kissed? Ferio must have the patience of a million saints!"

"Prince Ferio is not like those sorts of boys here," Fuu insisted quite instantly.

"No, but...he is a man. They do have needs, Fuu! I say man, is he a man or a boy? Do we even know how old he is?"

How bizarre, Fuu thought; "No, I don't really."

"And why are you calling him Prince Ferio all the time? You're lovers, Fuu." Umi gave Fuu a gentle, playful shove. "You should be able to comfortably call him by his given name..." Umi watched Fuu's face with amusement, "Fuu, don't take me seriously. You know I don't mean any harm."

Fuu nodded with a nervous smile, and she and Umi stopped in silence to watch Hikaru still wowing the children. Apparently she had obtained some sort of stick from the evening venue - some table was likely to collapse without it, knowing her - and was showing off her kendo training.

Umi sighed, "Hikaru will get into the CLAMP School with no problem, with those sorts of skills."

"What's wrong, Umi-san?" Fuu asked, noticing that Umi was slightly forlorn.

Umi now toyed with a bracelet on her left hand, and absent-mindedly twirled some hair around her finger. "My parents want to take me to some prestigious private academy in Kanazawa for senior high. I've been worrying, but I worked out that I could stay behind if I manage to pass the entrance exams...and maybe I could live with you or Hikaru? Well, perhaps not Hikaru since she has so many older brothers, but-"

She was cut off from her distressed monologue; "Umi-san! You can't keep this sort of thing to yourself," Fuu put a sympathetic hand on her friend's shoulder. "Have you explained that you want to go to school with Hikaru-san and myself?"

Umi nodded, "But they don't really understand how I'm such good friends with you guys...have you had problems explaining it to your parents too?"

Fuu shrugged. "I don't really have to explain why I want to go to CLAMP School, because my older sister goes there. But you're right, they do wonder how we share such a strong friendship after only, from most peoples' perception, being away for a few minutes."

"I wish I could tell them," Umi lamented, "It would make everything so much easier. At least we're not really worrying about much any more though, right?" She smiled at an uneasy Fuu, "Oh okay, aside from our love lives."

"Lives, plural, Umi-san?"

Umi shook her head hastily and stood up, "Come on, Fuu! Let's get Hikaru and go and have a dance. It's a celebration, after all!"

•••

Hikaru woke up one morning in her school holiday to the sound of her dog Hikari barking quite madly at some new visitors to the dojo. Wondering how soon her brothers would shut him up, she rolled over in her futon blankets and pulled a pillow over her head, looking accusingly at the tatami mats covering the floor of her room.

"Hikaru-chan!" She heard one of her brothers calling, "Hikaru-chan, you have friends here to see you!"

Friends? It could only be Umi and Fuu; "Okay, thank you, Masaru-oniisan!"

"You're not dressed, are you, Hikaru-chan?"

Hikaru made a quick check of her appearance; sleeping in something resembling short Japanese robes with hakama pants from her kendo clothes, and her long red hair was untied and messy. She shrugged, "No, Kakeru-oniisan! But Fuu-chan and Umi-chan can come in!"

"It's not..." Kakeru started, opening the door to Hikaru's room for three girls who were definitely not Umi and Fuu. "They said they're from your school?"

There stood Naoyo, Masae and Hideme, Hikaru's closest three friends from her class. The three friends who had been present at the fabled Tōkyō Tower trip. The friends she had not seen outside school more than a few times since that day last March; and it was almost September now.

"Hikaru, we need to talk to you," Hideme said quite firmly after Kakeru had shut the door.

Masae nodded, "You're pushing yourself too hard, aren't you? You're planning to get into another school with those other friends of yours," she brushed some short auburn hair away from her face, "Hikaru, you don't have to try so hard, you can just come to the partner senior high with us."

Naoyo stood with her hands on her hips, her expression forbidding; "They're too good for you, Hikaru. They're both too rich or too clever. They'll get tired of you and leave you behind."

Not quite believing what she was hearing, and becoming aware of Hikari's agitated whining and scratching at her bedroom door, Hikaru balled her hands into fists and rose from her futon. "You're wrong! Umi-chan and Fuu-chan, they won't do that to me!"

"Hikaru, we've been your friends since you moved here from Hokkaidō! What can you possibly share with them that means you'd choose going to senior high with them over us?" Masae questioned indignantly.

Her furious question made Hikaru relax her hands - besides, her nails were digging into her palms - and she looked at the floor between them, "I've already told you, we're childhood friends. I can't tell you any more; you'd never begin to believe me," she looked back at them with steely resolve, "But I won't let you bully me into any other decision. I still like you very much, and there's plenty of time to meet up after school or at week-"

"You've had barely any time since the end of the last school year; how are we meant to believe that?" Naoyo asked, looking just as irritated as Masae.

"I'm sorry, Hideme-chan, Masae-chan, Naoyo-chan," said Hikaru, at length, "But I have to do this, and I don't mean to be short of time. I have lots of kendo tournaments coming up for my scholarship into CLAMP School, and I have to dedicate all my spare time-"

She was interrupted again, this time by Hideme, "To meeting up with 'Fuu-chan' and 'Umi-chan', right?"

"You don't understand," repeated Hikaru, "So please, if you don't have anything else to say, I would like to begin my day's training."

Hikari let out a loud whine outside the door and barked sharply, making the other girls jump. They were surprised about Hikaru standing up to them, and they left with barely a word. As the last girl, Hideme, left the room, Hikari took his chance to race in and check up on his beloved mistress.

Hikaru dropped to her knees, hugging the huge dog, "Thank you Hikari, for looking after me. You believe me, don't you?" Hikari gave her a doggy smile and licked her face. She laughed and nestled her face in his fur, "You're the best, Hikari!"

•••

Umi was struggling. She disliked the more 'technical' subjects, as she called them, like mathematics and the sciences. Fuu was wonderful at them, and Hikaru excelled at Biology. Umi excelled at English and culinary skills, but this just left her confused. Maybe she should invite them over sometime for a study session.

Looking to take a break from study in her frustration, Umi looked around her room. Decorated as if it were fit for a Princess, her spacious bedroom was covered in paper, textbooks, exercise books, pens, and somewhere underneath all of this was her laptop. It was probably overheating somewhere by now. She sighed and started to organise her study materials into messy piles by subject.

She looked up when alerted to a noise; her mobile phone was ringing. Hikaru. What a relief!

"What's up, Hikaru? I was just trying to cram some studying in for maths and science."

There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone, "Oh, it's nothing, Umi-chan. I was just wondering how you're doing today. I got up kind of late, I'm practicing kendo today for my scholarship."

Umi wondered about Hikaru's hesitation at the beginning of the call, but discarded it. Hikaru rarely worried about anything, "That's good, Hikaru! You'll be amazing. I left it too late to register for a sports scholarship - I didn't even think about it - so, unfortunately, I'll have to get in via the entrance exams like Fuu," she laughed somewhat sadly, "It's not going very well though. Do you think I can pay Fuu to tutor me?"

"Umi-chan, won't your parents pay to get you into CLAMP School?" Hikaru asked, sounding bewildered; Umi had been in a private junior high for almost three years now.

Umi bit her lip; she hadn't spoken to Hikaru about this, and obviously Fuu hadn't shared it with her either, "Hikaru, my parents actually want to move to Kanazawa for my senior high, so I am trying my hardest to get into CLAMP in other ways. I have to work hard to prove it, because I don't think they'll agree to pay it when I'm going against their plans."

"My friends from junior high don't want me to go to CLAMP School, either, Umi-chan," Hikaru laughed as if she were about to cry, "Don't you think it would sometimes be easier and make us a lot happier to just go and permanently live in New Cephiro?"

Umi released a similar laugh, "I often think that, Hikaru. But the three of us promised that we'd stay here until we're done with senior high before we decide anything drastic like that," Her phone made a beeping noise, "Hold up, I have a mail. Can we talk later, Hikaru?"

"Sure thing, Umi-chan. It was good to talk."

"I think so too; thank you. Bye bye, then!"

The mail was from Fuu, asking if she was on the line because she'd been trying to get through as well. She was suggesting that they meet up for study: great!

"Fuu, I was just considering this before Hikaru called!"

"Oh, good! I was really thinking that we could go study outside at Hikaru-san's dojo while the weather is nice. Then she can do her studying, and we can do ours. And Umi-san, did you tell her why you're having to study so hard?"

"Because I'm totally lame at these subjects?" Umi proposed.

Fuu laughed in her good-natured way, "No, no. About the moving."

"Ah, yes. She also said her friends had come and challenged her about why she's trying to get into CLAMP School with us, and that she sometimes thinks it would be easier to move to New Cephiro instead."

Fuu was quiet for a few moments, and then said to Umi, "I have to agree with Hikaru-san, though. And it's true, Yorino-san and Norie-san in my class have been telling me I shouldn't expect you two to go to CLAMP School with me. Also, they want me to go to another school with them, but I have explained that Kuu-oneesama attends that academy."

"I guess it's easier to explain, for you. Do you think I should be worried that my school friends will have that conversation with me, too?"

"I'm afraid so, Umi-san. Nobody really understands us."

Umi nodded, unaware for the moment that Fuu couldn't see her doing it. A sly smile crept across her face, "Say, Fuu. If you marry Ferio, will you stay in New Cephiro?"

"Ummm...Umi-san...we haven't really-"

"And I don't think there's any real contraceptives in Cephiro, so if you have to consummate the marriage, there's always the chance you might get pregnant."

There was a resounding silence from Fuu's end of the line, and Umi almost thought she could feel heat from Fuu's face radiating from her own mobile phone, "...so Umi-san, shall I organise this with Hikaru-san and let you know what the arrangements are?"

Umi stifled a laugh - she had to hang up now, "That's great, Fuu. Let me know. Bye bye!" And with that, she fell back onto her bed and laughed, throwing her mobile phone down beside her - teasing Fuu about her relationship with Ferio never failed to be entertaining.

Umi sighed with a smile on her face as her laughter subsided. There was her own love life to consider. She must have someone on her mind; she'd been turning down every boy that confessed to her recently, without a second thought. Who could be occupying her thoughts so fully? She very much enjoyed the company of New Cephiro's Master Mage - Guru Clef - but she didn't really see this going anywhere any more. Clef seemed to care for all three of the Magic Knights quite equally, but there was that one person that frequently asked Umi if she had a boyfriend, and he was starting to become less and less subtle towards the blue-haired Knight.

It must be so much easier, Umi considered, to be the ingenuous and clueless Hikaru, or indeed Fuu, who was officially in a relationship, "With the Prince, no less," Umi added to herself, wondering how the quiet, shy Fuu had ended up with such a catch.

•••

The catch himself was sat rather dejectedly in his room at New Cephiro Castle. Because of their studying, and this wedding the Magic Knights had been attending, they hadn't managed to find time to visit New Cephiro this weekend. Ferio disliked being away from Fuu for this long, even though he knew it was quite an inconvenience to keep lying to her parents about why she and her two dearest friends went to the exact same location every weekend, and how she'd become so close to them during one short school trip.

He had been in the Castle's large library over the course of the morning, looking to find any information about "marriage". It intrigued him; there was no concept of marriage in Cephiro. Long-term partnerships, yes, but no official ceremonies or statuses.

Through Caldina, Ferio had learned some of Umi's knowledge; in a large part of their world, the culture was for the suitor to offer rings for "engagement" and "marriage". He had been slightly unnerved by this information, as he had already placed one of his late sister's gold rings on Fuu's finger.

Ferio decided to go looking for Lantis. He was sure Lantis had spoken to Hikaru about marriage before.

He first tried the indoor courtyard where the evacuated people of former Cephiro had spent many of their waking hours. Lantis often relaxed here, along with some familiar children from the newly constructed New Cephiro Castle Town. No sign of the magic swordsman here.

"Prince, are you looking for me?"

Ferio looked up. Of course. Lantis was sat in the tallest tree in the room. Lantis had a habit of sitting in trees, Ferio found. Long ago when he had been young and (still) disinterested in being in line for the throne, spending his time sword fighting, Lantis had always been found in the Castle grounds sat in a tree somewhere. It was very strange for the Captain of the Royal Guards to be doing this, though Cephiro had always been an extremely quiet place; and in the end, danger to the Princess's life had only come from inside her own heart.

"Prince Ferio. Do you even recall your title?"

Ferio grinned up at the magic swordsman. "It does take some getting used to, having been just 'Ferio' for so long."

Lantis watched with mild amusement as Ferio climbed the tree to join him. He wasn't as agile as he had been when trapped in the Forest of Silence – good meals and months moping around the Castle while Fuu wasn't there had ensured that.

"What's on your mind, Prince?"

Ferio sighed, "Lantis, just 'Ferio' is fine," he smiled up at the taller swordsman, "Now, Hikaru has been talking to you about 'marriage', right? Because I was thinking, I've pretty much 'proposed' to Fuu by accident."

Lantis looked out across the large courtyard for a few moments, trying to hold in a smirk, "She hasn't actually told me a lot. Hikaru is a very sweet but simple girl, and she probably over-simplifies or romanticises things."

The two of them looked over as a third person entered the artificial garden; Ascot.

"I just think it sounds like an interesting way to bond. And I have to produce heirs eventually, right? I can't imagine a better woman to 'marry'."

Ascot looked up at them, "What are you talking about up there?"

Lantis leaned forward a little, "Ferio is talking about 'marrying' Fuu; do you have any ideas?"

Ascot appeared bemused, "What do you mean? To produce heirs, you said?"

At this, Ferio nudged Lantis gently in the ribs, "Yeah, on Earth it's done publicly for people to express their love to each other."

The young summoner looked startled. Ferio and Lantis withheld grins.

"Babies are born out of partnerships in New Cephiro, aren't they? I guess it's not so different..." Lantis continued. Ferio was finding it very hard not to laugh at this, as Ascot's eyes grew wider and wider. He abruptly turned and walked out of the room, allowing Ferio and Lantis to unrestrictedly laugh at his naivety. Despite not really helping Ferio's research on marriage, it had provided them with a very elaborate joke to continue to play on Ascot.

"Do you think he's a virgin?"

"He must be," Lantis affirmed, "He's only recently grown into an adult, and he's only been chasing Umi's tail since then," he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Ferio, "So you...are not?"

The Prince looked slightly shameful, "No, I'm not. You know how it is. I was very young and attractive, and so were the girls in Aueria by the Sea."

"And so modest," Lantis added, "They didn't know you were the Prince?"

"No, I was just a commoner as far as they knew," Ferio shrugged, "Well, what's done is done. I wish I could have saved it for Fuu, though. I'm doing this properly."

Lantis raised a dark eyebrow, "So, you haven't..."

"We haven't even kissed, Lantis."

"My, my."


	2. Chapter 2

Hikaru was training hard; aside from the times Fuu and Umi would come to study in her gardens, she didn't even manage to see her two best friends. There was the odd weekend where they'd been to Cephiro, but this really had to take precedence, as much as she disliked being away from Lantis and Eagle.

"I don't understand," said Umi, looking up at Hikaru.

Fuu sighed, "Umi-san, we've been through this question twice now, I really don't think-"

"No, Fuu. I don't understand why Hikaru has to train so hard for this when she once defeated her father – head of their dojo – at kendo," Umi leaned back and accidentally came into contact with Hikari, who was quite grateful to get any attention.

Fuu and Umi decided to make a fuss of Hikari while they waited for Hikaru to finish her current session of training, pondering what to do in order to give her a well-earned break.

"Umi-san, you know how time seems to freeze here while we're in New Cephiro?"

Umi rested her chin on the top of Hikari's head, "Yeah?"

"Don't you think it might be fun to go there for a maybe a week, and get plenty of revision and practicing done?"

Hikaru overheard as she wiped sweat from her brow and walked over. She and Umi seemed to take a while processing this information.

Umi was the first to speak, "We should speak to Clef about this; we haven't stayed there for that long before."

"I love it!" exclaimed Hikaru, "Can't we go now?"

They exchanged glances, grinned wildly at each other, and with that picked up their belongings and made a mad dash for the main house.

"I need my textbooks!" Umi exclaimed, "There are other textbooks at my house, we have to stop off there on the way!"

"I should collect some things, too!" Fuu added, hastily packing the remains of her study materials into the bag she'd hefted along to Hikaru's house, "Hikaru-san, you cannot possibly take that shinai sword with you, we'll get stopped by Tower security! You have your own sword held by Master Mage Clef in New Cephiro."

Umi and Fuu hastily exited the room as Hikaru started throwing off her kimono and hakama pants in order to put on ordinary clothing for their venture into Tōkyō. She pulled a bigger bag from her bedroom storage cupboard and shoved a week's worth of clothes into it.

"I'm taking someone's PASMO card!" Hikaru called from the front door, snatching her keys and a prepay travel card from just inside the house.

Kakeru came running, "You're paying me back later, Hikaru-chan! Where are you going?"

"Tōkyō Tower, of course!"

Satoru looked up as three blurs passed him as he raked leaves in the garden, "Again, Hikaru-chan?"

Hikaru did nothing but wave as Umi took her other hand and pulled her towards the closest Metro station. Satoru had to wonder why Hikaru was holding such a large bag for a trip lasting perhaps a few hours, but he learned not to ask questions about her days out with Fuu and Umi; she would never share anything out of the ordinary with them.

The Magic Knights travelled almost in silence, looking very excited. They hadn't had a rushed, spontaneous trip before.

The first stop was Umi's house. Fuu and Hikaru hadn't come here before – they were amazed by the size of the house and the beautiful neighbourhood it stood in. They had always known Umi's parents were well-paid politicians, but they didn't really know what to expect.

"Did you want to come in?" Umi asked as they reached the front door. Hikaru was quite red-faced from carrying her heavy bag this far, but she and Fuu nodded enthusiastically. Umi led them in through the door, nonchalantly ascending the stairs with their intricately carved wooden bannisters in the spacious hallway.

"Hikaru-san, I almost feel as if I am in Cephiro here," Fuu whispered to the redhead, eliciting a giggle from her.

Hikaru ditched her bag in the hallway, ever so conscious that it looked incredibly out of place in the Ryuuzaki family's pristine house. She shrugged off the thought and followed Fuu and Umi to the secondary bedroom of the house.

Umi's bedroom was just as spacious as one would expect from the rest of the house, decorated in blue, white and silver. A painted wood four-poster bed sat in the middle of the room, currently covered with some of Umi's exercise books, a silvery laptop that was charging, and what seemed to be at least a ream of loose paper. The closets had delicately painted wooden doors, and pearly white netting hung from the canopy of the bed.

"This could be a room at the palace in New Cephiro, Umi-chan!" Hikaru remarked, looking around all wide-eyed, "I never realised just how luxurious your house is!"

Umi smiled, amused, but shrugged off the comments, "It's all I've known, though, Hikaru, just like I find your living at a traditional Japanese dojo to be alien."

She had a better plan than Hikaru's bag that was slung over the small girl's shoulder; an aircraft cabin-size suitcase on wheels. She flung open the wardrobes and more carefully selected her clothes than Hikaru had.

"Umi-chan, come on, come on!" Hikaru whined, almost jumping up and down, "I want to go back to New Cephiro today!"

Fuu giggled, "She's right, Umi-san, we still have to go to my house, too! Aren't you forgetting your books, by the way?" she added, pointing to the various books on the embroidered bed cover.

Finally, they made their way down the stairs. Unfortunately, Mrs Ryuuzaki was standing at the bottom of them, next to Hikaru's sports bag, and looking at Umi's suitcase, "Umi, where are you going with that suitcase? Are these your friends from the Tōkyō Tower?"

"Yes, Mom. This is Hikaru Shidou, and Hikaru's bag, and Fuu Hououji."

The two girls bowed; Fuu slightly more demurely and less energetically than Hikaru.

"We're having a sleepover at Fuu's house," Umi added, trying to cover their story.

Mrs Ryuuzaki raised an eyebrow. "Really? Isn't this a little short notice for Fuu's parents?"

Fuu repeated her bow, "I assure you, Mrs Ryuuzaki, my parents do not mind one bit."

Umi's mother successfully fooled by Fuu's decorum, the girls descended into the nearest Metro station for their final stop at Fuu's house.

"But Umi-san, we will have to use the same excuse if my parents or sister ask the same question of me."

Umi opened her mouth to speak, but Hikaru piped up, "Fuu-chan, we'll say you're both staying at my house – my brothers won't mind for tonight – and I'm carrying my bag for uh, we're going to play tennis or something?"

Fuu nodded with a smile, decreeing this as good a plan as any.

The Hououji residence was part of a large gated duplex in a quiet part of Tōkyō, although not as upscale as the neighbourhood Umi lived in. A large garden lay out front, and a pretty brunette – her hair nearly as long as Umi's – was watering flowers in the shared garden, wearing a ridiculously frilly white apron over a long sundress. She looked up as she heard voices approaching, and smiled at the three girls as they entered through the black metal gates.

"Good afternoon, Fuu-san!" she called, setting down the watering can.

Fuu smiled, "Good afternoon, Kuu-oneesama."

Umi whispered to Hikaru, "I guess the formality and politeness runs in the family?"

Kuu approached them, and introduced herself with a bow to her sister's friends, "You must be Umi-san and Hikaru-san. My sister speaks very fondly of you both. I'm glad she has such good friends. Are you staying over tonight?"

Fuu rescued them from her sister, "Kuu-oneesama, we are going to Hikaru's house this evening. But first we are off to the park, so she is carrying our sports equipment."

Finally, they escaped into the house. Fuu's house was bigger than most, but as before, still did not quite match Umi's in terms of space and lavishness. The house was mostly quite plainly decorated, with white walls and neutral coloured furniture. Fuu's room was a little more colourful; mostly decorated in pale and natural greens, of course, and a lot tidier than Umi's.

"That was Fuu-chan's sister? They look nothing alike" Hikaru observed, not quite as quietly as she could have. She and Umi sat on Fuu's bed as she pulled out her own small suitcase and went through her wardrobe.

Fuu nodded in agreement, however, "We look a lot like our separate parents – I look more like mother, and Kuu-oneesama takes after father – but we both have the same coloured eyes."

There was a vast overabundance of books in the room, as well as a desktop computer, a couple of scientific calculators, and neatly arranged pens and papers. Truly, this could be considered the bedroom of a young genius.

"You like to make computer programs, don't you, Fuu-chan?" Hikaru asked, looking over at Fuu's computer.

Fuu nodded enthusiastically, "That's right, Hikaru-san, but I'm not very good just yet. I want to go into the Computing classes at CLAMP School, as well as Mathematics."

Fuu zipped up her suitcase and looked over her room. There was an overwhelming urge to switch off her electronics at the mains sockets, as she did when she went on holiday, but she knew that time would freeze on Earth while she was in New Cephiro, and she'd be back just the next day.

"I will need this suitcase again in the summer," Fuu said as they started to descend the stairs again, "I believe we will be travelling to somewhere in Europe for our summer holiday. It's a shame that I can't travel to New Cephiro while I am there."

"I don't know, Fuu, I'd say the Eiffel Tower in France is quite similar to our Tōkyō Tower, isn't it?" Umi suggested.

"Actually, the Tōkyō Tower was loosely based on the Eiffel Tower, so you are quite right, Umi-san," Fuu waved to her sister as they passed her. "I will see you tomorrow, Kuu-oneesama! And I will make sure to buy you some pastries if we pass the Tōkyō Tower!"

Kuu responded with nothing but an excited grin, and then she went back about her gardening.

The final stretch of their journey seemed to take forever. The girls passed the time by searching through their bags and pockets for the entrance money into Tōkyō Tower and its top observation deck. By this point, they probably should have considered buying annual passes or something similar.

"I would say that this is not a bad price for interplanetary travel, wouldn't you?" Fuu asked brightly, counting her coins and paper money.

Hikaru nodded energetically in agreement, "I used to be annoyed about paying to get into the Tower, but now I don't think the cost is so bad, either."

"Why is this taking so long?" Umi moaned, shaking the handle of her suitcase in frustration.

After what seemed like hours, they emerged from the Metro station closest to Tōkyō Tower. They raced through Shiba Park with their suitcases bouncing and dragging on the paths – Hikaru trying her best to carry her hefty and less conveniently shaped bag behind them – paying little attention to the famed Buddhist temple that they passed. The Magic Knights were met with a very long queue of people trying to get into the landmark; they had forgotten that it was the end of the summer period, it was a weekend, and it was the middle of the day.

"We should have known!" Umi cried, sitting down on her suitcase in a huff. Fuu did the same, albeit slightly more daintily. Hikaru shrugged and sat down with a 'flumph' noise on her comparatively softer and lower down bag. They were perhaps the only people there with travel bags – at least the only native Japanese people – and were receiving a few strange glances from people around them.

"I do suppose they'll let us in with these cases," Fuu said, noticing the attention they were receiving.

Hikaru gazed up at the Tower, "Fuu-chan, surely foreign tourists come here all the time with bags and cases? And old people with their shopping carts, maybe?"

"At least we could talk about what we're going to do while we're there," Umi suggested, cutting into the considerably more serious conversation about luggage, "So, we intend to study, but I imagine Fuu will want to see loverboy, and-"

"Umi-san, really!"

"You could kiss him, Fuu. That could be your target for the end of the holiday."

Hikaru looked surprised, "Fuu-chan, you and Ferio haven't even kissed each other? Haven't you been a couple for a long time, now?"

"Well, yes, we have been together a while, but...not...not always officially..."

Umi was wide-eyed now, "Hikaru, do you mean you and Lantis have?"

Hikaru grinned to herself, standing up so that they could shuffle forwards a little more in the customer line, "Well, a little!"

Fuu and Umi were astounded; little Hikaru had beaten them to this important step?

"How do you reach?" Umi asked, echoing the thoughts Fuu was too polite to ask, "Do you have a box or a telephone directory to stand on?"

Hikaru looked marginally annoyed, "Well, no, we can't really do that standing up, but it does work, you know. And there's no such thing as telephones in New Cephiro, Umi-chan, so don't be silly."

Umi chuckled, and even Fuu had to laugh at this, in particular the wording. Hikaru put on her frustrated face, and moved forwards in front of the other girls as the line moved up again.

"How much longer do you think we'll be waiting?" Umi asked, leaning backwards precariously on her suitcase to look at the length of the line, "About twenty minutes, maybe?"

Hikaru stood up to look, but to no avail, only frustrating her further, "I'd agree, Umi-chan."

Fuu pulled out her mobile phone and checked the time. It was just past two in the afternoon, and they hadn't eaten anything yet, "Should one or two of us go to get some food from a vendor, and the other hold the space in the line?"

"I don't know, Fuu-chan, they usually feed us quite well in New Cephiro for free if we can hold out that long," Hikaru suggested, earning a nod of agreement from Umi. That way, they could save the money for their next trip.

The next ten minutes were held in silence. Umi had a few mails from her school friends, asking if she was doing anything this afternoon. She bit her lip, knowing they'd resent her if they knew she was choosing Hikaru and Fuu over them yet again. She fobbed them off with some story about doing study, and then something at home with her family.

The line moved up. Hikaru actually wanted to receive mails from her friends, for they hadn't spoken to her since the incident the other morning when they'd tried to give her an intervention. Instead, she decided it would be best to inform her eldest brother Satoru of their intention to sleep at their dojo tonight. He seemed to be glad to get mail from her, and responded almost immediately saying she could do whatever made her happy. This seemed quite overblown for such a simple request.

Fuu had just received mail from Kuu, saying that she was glad to meet her friends, but was still confused by how they had become such great friends in the matter of a day. Fuu pondered this question as they shuffled their bags slightly closer to the entrance of Tōkyō Tower, and elected not to respond until they were back from New Cephiro; it would be less than an hour in Earth time, anyway.

"I make it ten minutes until we can go in," Hikaru observed, practically halfway into a backwards hand-stand as she leaned back to look at the queue.

Umi put her phone away in one of the front pockets of her suitcase, "It's getting closer, at last! Now, Fuu, you didn't answer; do you accept our challenge?"

Fuu decided not to respond for a short while, still pondering a suitable response to Kuu, and then looked up with a pink face, "I guess I could give it a try?"

Umi clapped her hands together with glee, "Excellent! Well, I won't push you for information until we return from New Cephiro."

Fuu remained in a highly embarrassed silence right up until they got into the Tōkyō Tower ticket office, listening to Umi grilling Hikaru about her antics with Lantis. To be honest, Fuu was quite shocked that Umi wasn't the one of the three of them furthest into a relationship; she wasn't in one at all.

To her surprise, there were no problems with the large bag and suitcases going into the Tower – like Hikaru had said, they assumed the girls were tourists and let them through with no questions.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Hikaru shouted at the inside of the lift that took them to the top observation deck, alarming the people around her.

The three of them bailed very quickly out of the lift, as they had planned their ascension so they were the last in and first out. Hikaru slung her bag over one shoulder and held out her hands to Umi and Fuu, who held on to her tightly and kept a good grip with their free hands on their cases. They closed their eyes and concentrated all their will.

"To New Cephiro!" The three of them cheered quietly, eyes opening only when they appeared in the throne room of the Castle, much to the astonishment of a seemingly ever-present Master Mage.

Umi threw an arm up in the air in greeting, "Clef! We've come to stay for a week so that we may cheat the Japanese school system, could we please have use of some rooms?"

Clef looked even more incredulous; "Don't you think you should ask before you come to stay for some time, Umi?"

Hikaru prodded Fuu in the small of her back while Umi and Clef argued this out, "Fuu-chan, go to find Ferio! We'll let you know later where we are," and she pulled away Fuu's suitcase.

Fuu staggered forward a few steps from the assault on her spine, "Th-thank you, Hikaru-san."

The royal Castle of New Cephiro had changed little from her fist visit here. Despite its size, most of the Castle was contained only within one floor on one of the three spikes that comprised its elegant architecture – however, this one floor was very spacious and contained a surprising amount of rooms. She set off in a direction that she thought might be in the vicinity of most of the sleeping quarters.

Fuu rounded a corner to come rather face-to-face with a pink-haired, dark-skinned woman, who, upon gathering her senses, embraced her in an energetic hug, "Fuu! It's good to see ya, girl! I had no idea you and the others were visiting us today!"

"Good afternoon, Caldina-san," Fuu greeted, brushing herself down as she was released from the hug, "Hikaru-san and Umi-san are in the throne room with Master Mage Clef. I was looking for Prince Ferio, though, I wonder if you can assist me?"

Caldina opened her mouth to say something suggestive, but decided that the rather reserved Fuu would not be best appreciative of it, "I reckon I last saw him with Lantis in the courtyard, but that was a few hours ago. He could be back in his suite; do you know where that is?" Fuu shook her head, "Really, doll? You've never been there? Let me take ya."

"Thank you very much, Caldina-san," Fuu said, with one of the small bows that always amused the dancer. Fuu was oblivious to this, and followed Caldina down the corridor. It grew lighter towards the end; Fuu realised this was the opposite end to the large opening at the front of the Castle, and there was a large window with a panoramic view of southern New Cephiro.

"That one, there," Caldina gestured towards a door with a carved wood design on it, orange gems embedded into them, and thus far indecipherable Cephiran script etched in at eye level, "I'm gonna go meet the girls. You behave yourself, missy!"

Fuu watched Caldina depart, slightly nervous about entering this room. She wondered if she should knock, or just walk in and surprise him – if he was even there.

"Ah," She said, just as Ferio did; the green-haired Prince had opened the door, having heard voices outside.

Despite all her decorum and diffidence, Ferio's presence generally caused Fuu to become something of an infatuated, awkward schoolgirl. She wondered if she felt more attraction to him now, or when he was a rather more ruggedly handsome "hunter" at their first meeting. His boyish good looks, and – oh my – those beautiful citrine-coloured eyes of his, made her knees rather weak.

"Fuu, are you quite okay?" Ferio asked, noticing the visible swooning of his significant other, but trying not to appear too narcissistic or acknowledge this, "We weren't expecting you today. This is a nice surprise!"

"We have come for a week, in fact," Fuu reached out to lay a hand on his arm, in part to balance herself but mostly to provide some sort of contact. She smiled, her face very rosy, "I'm glad to see you, Prince Ferio."

Ferio chuckled and took both of her hands in his gloved ones, pleased to see the ring was still there, "Fuu, how many times do I have to tell you?"

"I'm sorry, Ferio-san. I can drop the royal title if you really-"

Ferio shook his head, shaking her hands to get his point through, "None of your weird formal Earth titles, either – I'm just Ferio."

Fuu looked down at the floor, more flustered than ever before, "Ferio."

"Much better," he said, and pulled her close for an affectionate embrace. She froze for a moment, but then recalled her challenge from Hikaru and Umi, and gathered the courage to nestle her face in his clothes and gather her arms tightly around his waist. Ferio, surprised but glad of Fuu's slightly improved confidence, lightly kissed the top of her head. She made a small squeaking noise, and he laughed quietly in contentment.

Fuu looked up almost immediately, and adjusted her glasses, "May I see your room, Ferio?" She figured that if she was going to have this kiss happen, it should probably be somewhere private where nobody else would find them. Who would enter the Prince's suite without permission?

Ferio said nothing but nodded, opening the door again. Holding on to his hand, Fuu followed him in. The room did not include the bed she expected; instead she found a smaller-than-envisioned room housing a small sofa and a writing desk, as well as shelves of books, trinkets, ornaments and trophies, "This is the lounge," he explained, nodding towards a door on the back left wall, "My bedroom is actually through here."

He had to stop as Fuu released his hand and sat down somewhat abruptly on the sofa. She resolved that she wasn't ready to enter his bedroom if she could help it; he might think she had other plans for the afternoon.

"Are you okay, Fuu?" he asked, standing over her and looking concerned. She was quiet for a short moment, and then patted the space next to her. He raised an eyebrow to her and sat down, placing his hand on her arm and watching her face carefully, "You seem to be breathing a little erratically."

Her face quite flushed from his proximity and the task ahead of her, she bravely looked up into his eyes, "I thought that, well..." she paused, but Ferio's expression encouraged her to continue, knowing he wouldn't judge her for this – no, he would probably be quite pleased, "That I, no, we had reached the stage where...we would be expected to kiss."

Ferio felt quite a lot like laughing, but managed to present her with only a charming smile, "But do you want to kiss me, Fuu?"

Fuu fixed her eyes on one of the orange gemstones embroidered into his otherwise unpretentious royal garments, avoiding his gaze, and nodded. Ferio lifted his other hand to her chin, and tilted her head up so that she faced him properly. Her lips parted slightly in surprise, butterflies beginning to flutter like mad in her stomach.

"Close your eyes, Fuu," Ferio directed, his voice low and soft. Fuu swallowed in apprehension and did as he said, deciding at the last moment to remove her glasses and place them carefully on the arm of the sofa next to her.

She sensed Ferio lean over. He paused; she was trembling slightly. Regardless, in the next second she felt warm, soft lips on hers for the first time, and she relaxed, savouring the tenderness. She smiled slightly as a tingle ran down her spine, feeling like she was the heroine of a shoujo manga. A long moment passed, and Ferio pulled away. She opened her now unfocused green eyes wide at him, holding a hand to her mouth.

"Oh dear, Fuu, was I terrible?" Ferio joked at her wonderment, realising this was probably his beloved's first ever kiss.

To his further amusement, Fuu looked horrified and dived to hide her face against his chest, "No...Ferio, that was..." she yelped quietly as he pulled her onto his lap, one arm now around her waist and the other caddishly across her thighs; she was glad that she was wearing three-quarter-length trousers today, "Um...quite magical. May I retrieve my glasses now?"

"I don't know, Fuu," Ferio said, placing a small kiss on her closest cheek, "After that, I might want to kiss you some more."


	3. Chapter 3

Hours later, Umi and Hikaru were really starting to wonder about Fuu's location. Caldina had said she'd met her in the hallway, but didn't seem willing to share her whereabouts with the other two Magic Knights. This was highly unusual for Caldina, who normally took great pleasure in spreading cheerful rumours about other peoples' love lives.

"Do you suppose we should go looking for her, Umi-chan? She hasn't eaten anything today, and it's going to get dark soon. It must be quite late," Hikaru suggested, looking at the display on her mobile phone. She'd been playing with it, although she wasn't quite sure why she expected it to have any kind of concept of time, or reception, in a totally different universe. It still read the same time as it had from the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower: 2.34pm.

Umi smiled, "I'm not sure, Hikaru. They might be doing something important."

Hikaru frowned and considered this for a moment, but then stood up and started out of the courtyard, only to encounter a slightly ruffled Fuu, her hair a little tousled and her lips curiously slightly darker than before.

"Fuu-chan! Where have you been? Have you been running? Your hair is a bit messy," the redhead grinned, "Or have you been making out all afternoon?"

"Hikaru-san, really!"

"In Ferio's bedroom!"

"Hikaru-san! If you must know, he has a living room, and I did not progress further than that."

Umi hadn't really expected Fuu to kiss Ferio at all this trip, let alone in the first few hours of their being there, "Really, Fuu? Then we need to move you on to second base!" she joked, and then burst into hysterical laughter as the expression on Fuu's face became rather more thunderous.

She turned on her heel and was about to storm off when she bumped into Ferio coming towards her. His hair, of course, looked just as scruffy as ever. He wrapped his arms around Fuu and smiled quite cheerfully around at Hikaru and Umi, then at the other bewildered castle residents in the courtyard. Fuu tipped her head forward to hide her face in her hair, thoroughly embarrassed.

"I realise the two of you probably pushed her to do this," Ferio said, looking knowingly at the other two Magic Knights, "But regardless, it was quite fantastic, and I have invited this lovely lady to stay with me tonight."

Umi and Hikaru's mouths dropped open.

"Ferio..." Clef started, at a loss for words, "I would object, but will begrudgingly acknowledge that you are young adults. I can only hope you have honourable intentions."

"Oh, you need not worry, Guru Clef," Ferio assured him, "Under your instruction, I have become a model gentleman. Now, what's for dinner? Don't be so ridiculous, Fuu, all we did was kiss," he executed a small twirl, freeing Fuu from her safe position against his chest, and pulled her back into the main courtyard by her wrist to where the others had been too stunned to start their evening picnic.

Fuu found herself placed next to Umi, and sat down without another word to anyone.

"Fuu, we didn't mean for such a big deal to be made of it," Umi apologised in a whisper, patting her friend's shoulder, "We shouldn't tease you so much."

Fuu looked at her, dismayed, "I'm not angry at you specifically, Umi-san. I just don't want exaggerated rumours circulating the palace."

"I'm sorry too, Fuu-chan," Hikaru added quietly, looking like a scolded dog. Fuu managed a small smile at this, and comforted Hikaru with a shake of her head.

With that, the three went about their dinner with their friends. Mealtimes in New Cephiro had always been the same; it seemed that every time they came to visit, the cooks would bring out some other meats, fish, vegetables or fruit that the girls had never come across, and they would have to ask someone for advice. Of course, there was nobody else there to compare it to Earth food for them, and they generally entertained the Cephirans by exclaiming things such as, "Ah, this tastes a lot like sweet potato!" Umi and Fuu had started to write down this sort of thing, so that one day they might be able to help prepare some food in return for the constant hospitality they received, but today this had been forgotten.

It grew late, and Caldina had brought out a couple of bottles of alcohol from somewhere. Umi and Hikaru seemed quite happy to consume plenty of it, but Fuu refrained from more the a few sips, conscious that she would be spending the night in Ferio's suite, and she didn't need anything clouding her judgement. She then passed her glass chalice to Ferio, who had initially declined the drink from the Chizetan dancer.

"You can hold just one glass of wine, can't you?" Fuu asked.

Ferio continued to hold it without drinking it, "I didn't accept one from Caldina because I didn't think you wanted me to drink at all," he paused to take a sip, "but yeah, I won't be misbehaving after one glass."

Hikaru, fighting her inebriation, shifted her gaze from the prince and his lover, to analyse the eye contact going on between Umi, Clef and Ascot. She giggled a little – perhaps more loudly than she imagined – and tipped her head to lean on Lantis's arm. Lantis himself was also keeping an eye on Ferio, given the conversation that he'd had with him a few days ago.

"Hikaru, should we get you and Umi back to your room?" Lantis asked gently, noticing that Hikaru had become drunkenly cheerful, and Umi had become drunkenly sorrowful, "Ascot, would you mind helping me escort these young ladies back?"

Ascot too had been looking at Ferio and Fuu, still horrified by that conversation, and the new fact that Fuu was to stay in his room that night. As far as Ascot understood, Ferio was up to something unspeakable in his desire for heirs.

He stood, walked over to Umi and whispered quietly in her ear, and helped her to her feet rather shakily. Lantis had gathered Hikaru and her limbs up, a bridal style, and led the way to the Magic Knights' sleeping quarters. Fuu waved goodbye to her friends, slightly sad that she wasn't going to be spending the night with them; but at the same time glad of it if they were in this state.

"Lantis," said Ascot as quietly as he could, "I'm worried."

"About Ferio and Fuu?"

"Yes, I mean, he might try to 'marry' her."

Umi piped up, "I think Fuu would like to marry Ferio, what's the problem?"

Ascot was bewildered again. A proper girl like Fuu? Really? He bit his tongue to prevent himself from saying anything ridiculous, and remained in resolute silence until the girls were safely in their under-subscribed three-person room.

Back in the courtyard, Fuu and Ferio were one of the last few people remaining. Clef and Presea had bid them goodnight, as had Lafarga, carrying an incredibly inebriated Caldina off to their quarters. Two serving girls were left with the task of clearing up the mess they had left behind, picking their way carefully around the prince and Magic Knight.

"You know," said Fuu, "The three of us are below the legal drinking age in our country."

Ferio drained the last of the drink from his glass and stood up, offering his hand to her, "It doesn't sound very fun, your world, with all of these restrictions and laws," he smiled as she took it and he hoisted her up, kissing her forehead.

•••

"You can open the door," said Ferio, as they stood in his lounge once more.

Fuu was preoccupied with looking over a bookcase just outside the bedroom door, the metallic printed text on the leather-bound spines frustratingly alien to her. Slowly his speech buffered into her conscious mind and she straightened up, carefully regarding him from behind her glasses. She was about to open her mouth to respond, but there came a knock at the door, and Ferio went to attend to it.

Presea, the Master Smith, stood there with Fuu's small suitcase, "Good evening, I'm sorry to disturb you both but I found Fuu's belongings still in the throne room when I went to fetch a drink just now," she smiled and handed it to Ferio, who studied the smooth, man-made metal and plastic handle with interest.

"Thank you, Presea-san," Fuu said with a bow, taking her suitcase in one hand and Ferio's arm in the other, "I had no idea where Hikaru intended to take it. Sleep well tonight, Presea-san!"

Presea gave a small wave and shut the door behind her, wondering on her walk back about Fuu's judgement in staying there tonight.

Fuu pulled her suitcase over to sit it beside the sofa, and then she turned to face Ferio properly, "What are the sleeping arrangements to be, Ferio? I can sleep on this--"

He caught her hands in his, "Fuu, I am not having a lady sleep on the sofa. So long as you brought nightclothes with you, nobody will be in trouble, right?"

Fuu paused; she hadn't brought her pyjamas with the intention of anyone other than Hikaru and Umi seeing them, "I have, but they are not particularly...elegant," she emphasised the final word, thinking of the mass-produced but oh-so-comfortable bunny print, button shirt and pants combo in her suitcase. Not even her nice silk pyjamas or a pretty nightdress; no, the bunny ones. She wondered if she could go and catch up with Presea or find Umi and Hikaru to borrow something else, but all the time her mind was wandering wildly, Ferio was still watching her intently. Really, Fuu, she thought to herself, this is the guy you might want to spend the rest of your life with – he won't be offended by bunny pyjamas.

"I'm sure," Ferio persuaded, "If they are not elegant, then you would at least look very cute. Now, would you like to open the door? It is getting late."

Fuu walked over from the sofa to where Ferio was stood by a door made of the same dark wood as the entrance door from the outer corridor, although it was significantly less intricate. She took the handle and released it from the frame, opening the door to a much larger, elegant room. More beautifully decorated than the bedroom she had witnessed at Umi's house earlier in the day – or maybe that comparison was unfair, as the styles were completely different.

Ferio's living quarters seemed to be composed largely of dark wood; perhaps most resemblant of stained oak, and not as reddish as mahogany, and the linens and upholstery seemed to have a theme of white and red.

"Are these royal colours?" Fuu asked, noting that they echoed the colours of Ferio's clothing.

He was in the process of removing his cape and the shoulder pads they were attached to. As he pulled off his gloves, he said, "I suppose, but I'd say they're more...my colours, specifically, though I think white has always been part of our colour scheme," he deposited the items somewhere in the walk-in closet.

"Should...should I change in there?" Fuu asked, indicating the closet.

Ferio turned to examine it, and then back to her, "I'm not sure, wouldn't it be more comfortable to change in the lounge? Besides, your...case...is still out there. I'll change in here while you do that, just knock when you're done."

Fuu nodded and passed back through into the lounge, shutting the door firmly behind her. She hastily opened her suitcase and pulled out her pyjamas, changing into them with the same speed. Looking down at herself, she sighed, amused with how ridiculous the modern fibres and cute pattern looked against the finery of Ferio's royal suite. She folded her clothes efficiently and placed them into her suitcase.

Now padding about on the plush carpet in her bare feet, she wandered around to study that bookcase again. The Cephiran script looked like it was constructed in much the same way as the simpler phonetic Japanese alphabets, which comforted her; she intended to learn it at some point, and this would make it much easier.

Some English text caught her eye. Wait, English? There was only one English phrase she knew that was used in New Cephiro, and that was... "Magic Knights," Fuu said aloud, struggling to read the beautiful script it was written in. She was puzzled about how anyone knew which letters to use, and wondered if they knew what the letters meant, or if they just recognised the alphabet and shape for the words "Magic Knights".

Ferio opened the door slowly – had Fuu really taken that long that he needed to come looking for her? - and found her still staring at the front of that year-worn book, covered in rich burgundy-coloured leather with gold lettering. Fuu was tracing her finger over the crest of Windam on the front, wondering if she'd ever see the phoenix again.

"That's a children's book," Ferio said, snapping her back into reality. She looked at him – clothed in a white sleeveless shirt with a seemingly popular high, split Cephiran collar, and some loose cotton trousers of the same colour. She couldn't help but think that, for nightwear, it quite flattered his tanned skin and toned arms.

"It was yours?" Fuu asked, averting her eyes from his trim figure, lest she lose all her composure.

Ferio took it from her hands and the lights dropped in the lounge – not that Fuu was sure what the source of light was, in fact – and he nodded in the direction of his bed, "It is, I've had it since I was a small child. Come in, I'll read it to you."

Fuu slowly followed him in, clicking the door shut. Ferio deposited the book on his king-size bed and picked up a glowing sphere from its stand on his bedside table. He rolled this into the middle of the bed, and Fuu realised there were probably the same kind of things in the lounge that had been providing light. Perhaps she hadn't noticed because they were so reminiscent of electric lights back on Earth.

The prince leapt up onto his bed with an almost feline grace, and held his hand on top of the glass ball quite nonchalantly. Fuu watched as the glow increased in intensity until it seemed a sensible amount of light for reading. Ferio, sat cross-legged, now looked up and patted the other side of the bed, "Story time, Fuu. I promise this one has a happy ending."

Fuu clambered up as well, with perhaps less grace than Ferio, "A happy ending? Though I presume as this is a children's book, nobody likes to upset children."

He smiled and opened the cover of the book. The text appeared to be hand-written in different coloured inks, and the illustrations were rather more modern and simple than Fuu had expected from a Cephiran publication – she supposed she expected some classical Japanese style art, or the old fashioned western art featured in illustrated versions of Alice in Wonderland.

He pointed to the first line of text, under a picture of a pretty, petite princess, "The Pillar of Cephiro is a beautiful young lady, with golden hair and eyes the colour of Cephiro's sky," he sounded slightly choked towards the end of this sentence, and Fuu noticed him narrowing his eyes, perhaps against tears. She placed a hand on his arm, and he apparently snapped out of it and continued onto the facing page, "She prays every day that Cephiro should remain a beautiful and peaceful place. She prays for everyone's happiness," the page turned again and showed the princess looking scared, in front of a large shadowy creature, "But nobody in Cephiro is able to help the Pillar if she is in danger. That is why she can summon the Legendary Magic Knights to rescue her."

The next few pages seemed to detail the journey of the Magic Knights to gain their Escudo weapons and their Rune Gods, only in pictures. She could see a map of Former Cephiro, including the floating mountain where she had met Windam, and the volcano and sea fortress where Hikaru and Umi, respectively, had met their own Rune Gods. There was also an illustration of a small, white, rabbit-like creature standing between the Rune Gods.

"Mokona," said Fuu, touching the page where he stood between the three others. She noticed that the pictures had also been added by hand, because it felt distinctly like the pictures had been drawn in something like oil pastels and then covered in a shiny film of protective coating, "Ferio, did somebody make this book especially for you?"

Ferio didn't verbally respond to this question, but nodded and turned the page to a double spread, continuing to read, "The Magic Knights will be able to destroy whatever is in the way of Cephiro's place in the Pillar's heart."

Fuu looked carefully at the illustration. The dark shadow didn't seem to have any specific shape or form, but she could only imagine it as Zagato, and the blonde princess as Emeraude. She looked over to see that Ferio was frowning slightly, and she reached over to turn the page herself. There were few words; just a picture of the Rune Gods circling a smiling Pillar.

"So this is what you were lead to believe, Ferio?" Fuu asked, turning to the back of the book. She felt like she immediately recognised the signature and seal at the bottom corner – the mark of the artist.

Ferio nodded, "This book is why I ended up lost in the Forest of Silence, looking for the Spring of Eterna. Old man Clef read me this book almost every night when I was a small child. He told me it was very important."

Fuu's eyes widened in recognition, for now ignoring his lack of respect for the master mage, "Is this Clef's mark?" she asked, pointing to the signature and the seal next to it. When Ferio confirmed this with a nod of his head, she was quite surprised. She did not know that Clef was an artist, "It seems very lovingly made."

Ferio withheld from making comment but closed the book, placing it on his table and then moving to put the sphere back in its place. He dimmed the lights again, and laid down on his side of the bed, "I'll tell you about my childhood one day, Fuu, but I think tonight I might just like to sleep next to the girl I love...in her very cute pyjamas."

She giggled nervously, "I'm very sorry that I did not bring anything more proper. What about you? Are those really pyjamas?"

He looked down over himself, "No, I don't think guys really wear pyjamas. Personally, I normally sleep naked," he smirked as Fuu's face grew red, "but I didn't think it would be appropriate."

"Well, no, quite," Fuu mumbled, removing her glasses and placing them on the other table. She slid down to lay next to him, toying with the cuffs of her sleeves. He watched her fondly, recalling that the last time she removed her glasses...

Aware that he might alarm her for doing this sort of thing on his bed, he edged over to cup her face and kiss her anyway. She was quite surprised, but did not pull away or resist. Rather, she closed her eyes and pressed her hands against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and they laid there for another magical moment. She looked disappointed when he pulled away and said, "Goodnight, beautiful."

"Goodnight...Ferio," Fuu replied, now smiling sleepily. She nestled her head against him and closed her eyes. He contentedly closed his eyes too, and they drifted into a deep sleep together.

•••

Umi and Hikaru had been encouraged into the palace's large public bath by Caldina and Presea, in the hopes that the relaxation would help their terrible hangovers. There was an unmistakable absence of Fuu in the large bowl-shaped pool, however.

"Prince Ferio is very forward, isn't he?" Caldina mused, as ever not trying very hard at all to conceal her dignity. Because of this, it was quite diffucult to take her question seriously.

Umi stretched her arms, her head still muddled from the hangover and now the hot water, "A little, but I think he's good for Fuu. Besides, she won't let him do anything she doesn't want to do."

"Ah," said Hikaru, also looking rather worse for wear, "But haven't you noticed that Fuu-chan becomes very silly around Ferio?"

"Hikaru-chan, don't make us worry," Umi said, lowering herself deeper into the water.

Fuu herself had woken up rather a long time ago with some subconscious notion, despite the lack of windows anywhere in the room, that the sun might be rising. Quietly she untangled herself from Ferio's arms, and, taking that book with her, passed through the two doors to the corridor housing that enormous glass window. She sat on the cool marble floor and watched the sun start to rise over at least two ranges of mountains that were in view. She looked at the map in the book – she couldn't read the Cephiran script labelling them, but it was easy to identify which ones they were.

"These are the Altima Mountains," a soft voice said behind her. She almost jumped, then looked back to see the Master Mage of New Cephiro – Guru Clef. He smiled apologetically, and then pointed to the ones that were the next furthest away, "To the left you can see the Outlooks, in front of us, the Murano mountains, and to your right, the Polizu and Galant mountain ranges."

Fuu wasn't wearing her glasses, but she willed herself to see more clearly, and she could. Squinting against the rising sun, she looked out past the last two ranges, "And I think I can see the Forest of Silence from here, Master Mage Clef. Would I be right?"

He nodded, with another of his smiles, the smile he used to appreciate with never-ending wonder, the beauty of his world, "Not so far from where I first met you young women from another world. And, I have been told, where you met Prince Ferio."

Fuu now nodded her head in confirmation, but couldn't think of anything to add. Instead, she opted for an apology, "Master Mage Clef, I'm sorry that we turned up for a long while without thinking to ask ahead."

He sighed and shook his head, looking amused, "Fuu, you know that Umi and I have a reputation for play-fighting,” he looked a little pensive at this, but he continued. “It is always a pleasure to have you three here with us. We are indebted to you not on one count, but two," he stood next to her, closer to the window, "But what do you intend to do? Surely, you can't live your lives just passing between Earth and New Cephiro."

Fuu pulled her knees up against her chest, and became conscious that her feet were getting cold. She looked out over the scenery in front of her, feeling as if she were in some fantasy video game, "I don't really know, Master Mage Clef. I know I intend to finish high school with Umi-san and Hikaru-san – we're working to get into the same one together – but I don't know where to go from there."

There was a long silence before Clef asked his next question, and he chose his words carefully; "You do intend to act on your relationship with Prince Ferio, don't you?"

She was slightly chilled by the fact that he hadn't turned to look at her when he asked the question; she wasn't really sure what the right answer would be. She twisted the ring on her finger and said, "I do, and I know this for sure, in my heart, but I don't really know what is expected of me here."

"We haven't had a pair of monarchs in a long time," Clef said, now turning to smile a little sheepishly at her, "So, I am not entirely sure what you would be expected to do as part of your duties either."

Fuu continued watching the sun break over the mountains, "Well, I would very much like to study under you, if it would be possible. Become a scholar."

Clef now looked quite pleased and flattered at the same time, "It would be my pleasure, Fuu. From what I have heard, you are a model student. Although, for someone so interested in numbers and technology, Cephiro must be a very frustrating and bewildering place."

"I thought that at the beginning, Master Mage Clef, but now I share your love for this place, and I want to learn everything I can about it," she gazed out of the panoramic window, in awe of the fully fledged sunrise in front of her, "And perhaps, while I am learning at school, I might be able to share some of our Earth academia with you as well."

"I would be most interested," he said, giving her another smile, "And I will leave you to your sunrise, Fuu. Please come to the dining hall for breakfast when you are both up and ready."

Fuu watched the dawn for a few more long minutes, but decided to crawl back into bed next to Ferio, warming her feet against his. He stirred slightly uncomfortably when her cold skin made contact with his, but did not wake up. She giggled quietly and snuggled up next to him again, falling asleep again almost instantly, not stirring until a few hours later when they were rudely awakened.

"Fuu-chan! Fuu-chan!" Hikaru's voice somehow penetrated two thick wooden doors. It was accompanied by Umi's slightly more demanding one a few seconds later, which always grated on Ferio's nerves.

"Time for breakfast, I suppose?" Fuu asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Ferio rolled over onto his front and groaned into the pillows, not wishing to leave the warm haven of his bed. Fuu looked at him, and then got up to check on the outer door. Umi and Hikaru had very damp hair, but looked quite relaxed and healthy considering the amount of alcohol they had consumed the previous evening, "You've been in the baths today, already?" Fuu asked.

Hikaru nodded vigorously, sending tiny droplets of water everywhere, "We were going to come and get you, Fuu-chan, but we thought you would be busy. Oww!" Hikaru protested, as Umi gave her a smart nudge in the ribs.

"What Hikaru means, Fuu, is that--"

Fuu laughed quite loudly, which was out of character for her, "I know what you both think. We slept in nightclothes and nothing happened, it was very romantic."

"So did we," Umi said with a grin, "But it wasn't the same without you, Fuu, will you come and stay with us at least once during this trip?"

Fuu smiled brightly, "Of course I will, I'm sure Ferio won't mind. Now, allow me to go and get dressed, and we will join you for breakfast."

"See you later, Fuu-chan!" Hikaru beamed, waving as she and Umi made off back to the dining hall.

Without thinking, Fuu began to take off her pyjamas in the lounge and pick out her undergarments and outer clothing for the day. She had just picked up her shirt when she heard the door opening – Ferio must have gotten dressed while she was talking to her friends. She shrieked and positioned the shirt to cover her chest.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" Ferio apologised hastily, covering his eyes, "I'll...I'll go back in here...until..." he mumbled as he walked back into his bedroom.

Wishing her face didn't have to flush such a bright shade of red all the time, Fuu was at least glad that he had only caught some of her from behind the sofa, and at least she had been wearing underwear.

"I'm dressed now, Ferio," Fuu said, opening the door to find that he had been stood directly behind it, looking quite discomposed, "Don't worry about that."

"You're very beautiful, Fuu," he said quietly, still avoiding eye contact.

"Okay," Fuu said, flustered at this sudden comment, "Okay. Thank you. We should really go to have breakfast."

Ferio regained his composure and leaned down the small height difference between them to kiss her once more, "I mean it."


	4. Chapter 4

Umi wasn't entirely sure that there would be a lot of studying going on this holiday, as she and Fuu were currently fixated with watching Hikaru sparring with Ferio. Lantis apparently didn't want to fight with Hikaru, and so she had asked someone of a reasonable height to spar with her, rather than someone like Lafarga.

"Fuu, we really should try to concentrate. Ah, thank you very much, Ascot," Umi said, taking a ceramic tumbler of some exotic juice from the tall summoner, "What are you doing today?"

Ascot looked as ruffled as he normally did when Umi took any interest in him. It was quite endearing, "I'm not really sure; I suppose I will go and visit one of the villages I stayed in while I was a child...they always seem so happy to see me now."

"That's really great, Ascot. I'm pleased for you!" Umi smiled, causing the summoner to go even more red, not unlike Fuu earlier in the day.

Ascot wandered off, mumbling to himself and looking quietly pleased that Umi had paid so much attention to him.

"So! Physics," said Fuu, looking amused as Umi groaned and placed her head in her hands, "Come now, Umi-san, you're the one that said we needed to concentrate."

Umi put on a devilish grin as she raised her head again, "As if you're one to talk, Fuu, checking out Ferio the whole time when you think I'm not looking."

Fuu sighed, "I am like a schoolgirl around him, and I can't help it. He must think I'm so immature."

"You are a schoolgirl, Fuu. You are fourteen years old, and you are at school. Stop trying to act older than you are, and let yourself have some fun."

Stunned, Fuu found herself unable to say anything. Umi, like Hikaru, had moments of distinct clarity, though Umi was a lot more matter-of-fact about her advice. Hikaru tended to act like she had momentarily channelled a totally different person, it was so eerie.

"I suppose you are right, Umi-san."

Just looking back to their work once more, their heads snapped up again as there was a resounding 'thud' noise on the neatly maintained lawn of Cephiro Castle, and saw Ferio on his back, holding his sword aloft. Hikaru dropped to her knees, exhausted. Fuu leapt up and went to check on him.

"Ferio, are you okay? Should I use my magic?" Fuu asked, leaning over him to look straight at his face.

Ferio grinned up at her, golden eyes just as flirtatious as ever, "I'm okay, Fuu. Just my ego is bruised. But I'm just gonna lay here for a little while longer, just to make sure."

"I'm sorry, Ferio!" Hikaru said, crawling over, "You're a really good opponent, thanks for being my sparring partner."

"The same to you, Hikaru. You must have been training really hard recently."

Fuu left them to their conversation and went back over to Umi, trying not to worry. However, Ferio did not get up for what felt like a further half hour, and eventually Umi started to pack up the revision materials and prodded Fuu over towards the prince.

"Ferio, aren't you going to try getting up?" Fuu asked, looking quite concerned.

He looked slightly less cheerful than before, "Yes, well, I think I may have actually come down on my back rather harder than I thought, and I imagine moving would cause me quite a lot of pain right now."

And thus, Ferio spent the rest of his week in his suite, Fuu finding plenty of excuses to go and visit him, take him his meals, help him to the dining hall later in the week when he felt more mobile...and stay with him overnight for another couple of days. She questioned why he wouldn't let her use her magic to heal him a little faster, but Ferio gave her a sly smile and never responded. Caldina later suggested to Fuu that he enjoyed having her looking after him, and that he was getting off on it. Fuu said little or nothing in response, and quietly excused herself, secretly pleased.

Finally the time had come, now the girls were becoming quite homesick, to return to Tokyo This is what they had planned; however, Fuu was nowhere to be found once again. Umi resolved that she would go and find her, as she assumed she might find Fuu in the prince's chambers. She left Hikaru to say her goodbyes to Lantis. Why was she the only one that hadn't found love in New Cephiro yet?

Umi knocked on the door. Nothing. She entered the first door into that small lounge; Fuu's suitcase, handbag and jacket sitting on or by the little sofa. Umi looked around at the pretty decorations and the trinkets that decorated the room, never tiring of New Cephiro's culture and history. Her eyes adjusting to the dim light, she found the door to Ferio's bedroom near a large cluster of bookshelves, where the children's book about the Magic Knights sat untidily on top of the other, more neatly arranged books. Assuming Fuu to be the slightly prudish, reserved girl she'd always known, she opened the door without hesitation.

For starters, Fuu was – not to put too fine a point on it – sort of on top of Ferio, his hands pulling her shirt up to slightly reveal her bra as they lay locked in an intense kiss on his bed. Ferio also seemed to be lacking in clothing above his waist, and Umi wasn't sure whether to stare, leave the room, or make her presence known. She resolved to step inside nonchalantly and close the door none too quietly.

Fuu scrabbled to pull her shirt down, and turned to see who was in the room, "Umi-san! I didn't hear you-"

"It's time to go, Fuu," Umi said, trying to avert her gaze, "I'll um, I'll be in the next room."

She went back into the lounge, trying to fight the urge to giggle madly. She had never expected to find Fuu in a compromising position just yet! After all those months of nothing with Ferio, they'd certainly gotten a lot more comfortable with each other recently.

"I'm here, Umi-san!" Fuu announced, looking quite flustered and gathering her things with haste, "Are we departing from the throne room as normal?"

Umi nodded, unable to wipe the smirk from her face. Fuu trailed a little behind her on their way to the throne room, though both of them were running, Fuu's suitcase bouncing behind her and occasionally catching her heels.

Hasty goodbyes were said to the other residents of Cephiro, all of them with knowing smiles to Fuu – some too knowing, and some far too assuming – as the Magic Knights departed on their way back to Tokyo Tower.

Hikaru made a note to look at her phone again: 2.35pm. She frowned. It was a minute later than they had left, but she figured they could have just been on the cusp of a minute changing between leaving and returning. She chose not to say anything about this to Umi and Fuu at this time, but she thought she should keep an eye on it.

"Off to my house, then, right, Umi-chan, Fuu-chan?" Hikaru asked, smiling up at them both. She noticed however that Umi was withholding a smirk, and Fuu was hiding behind her hair, looking shamed.

"Let's look out over the city, Hikaru-san. We did pay to do this, after all," Fuu said, turning to face a window rather than face her friends after what Umi had seen. She looked down, seeing that the queue was still as long as it had been when they entered, still disorientated since they'd been away for a week in her mind. 

She thought back to her looking out over Cephiro when Clef had given her that little geography lesson. Tokyo was so different, so advanced, so metropolitan.

"Do you think Autozam looks anything like this?" Fuu asked, as Umi and Hikaru came to stand beside her.

"I think it's even further advanced than our Tokyo," Hikaru said, leaning on a railing to look out over the city herself, "Wow, Tokyo just isn't as amazing once you've been to New Cephiro, is it? I'm glad we've been able to see the Cephiro that we always heard about. It's so far on its way to being back how it used to be. So beautiful!"

Umi ruffled the redhead's hair, "In no small part thanks to you, Hikaru."

Hikaru laughed, enjoying her friend's sisterly affection, "Come on guys, let's go have an awesome night at my house."

•••

Over the coming months, Tokyo grew colder. The girls started to wear their winter uniforms to school, and their winter coats and scarves on their visits to New Cephiro, confusing the inhabitants; Cephiro was still the country of eternal spring, and they had never known snow or cold weather. The girls wondered, if they wished hard enough, that they might be able to summon snow one day.

"Incoming!" Hikaru yelled, launching two snowballs at her friends – they were back in Shiba Park, in front of the Tokyo Tower. This weekend they didn't plan on visiting New Cephiro though, they were just out having a good time the day before Hikaru's kendo test for her scholarship.

Fuu ducked in time, but Umi found a snowball hit her squarely in the back of the head, soaking her neatly plaited hair, and falling down the back of her expensive dry-clean-only overcoat. The Magic Knight of Water turned on her heel, looking furious, watching the fire knight laugh hysterically. Umi pondered her return attack. She should probably have her revenge later, when Hikaru least expected it.

It was also nearing Fuu's birthday, and she hoped that she could spend some of it in New Cephiro, owing to the fact that her romance had recently developed. They had never progressed further than this newfangled kissing thing, of course, but they were doing it rather a lot. Fuu felt quite pleased with herself, like she was being a normal teenage girl, were it not for the fact that she was dating a prince from another world.

She also had a task ahead of her for this next trip.

Kuu had become very worried about her younger sister, who would often fluctuate between being very happy to go out with her friends, wistful and sad when she got back, tearful over long times apart from them...and then of course there was that terrible period of depression between seeing them the first and second times at the Tokyo Tower.

Fuu had made the mistake of writing down a lot of her very detailed thoughts in a journal that she normally left in her desk, but one day she had left it open when she raced to go to school. Kuu had gone into her sister's room to ensure the window was closed before she left for school herself and their parents went to work, and the notebook had caught her eye, largely because of the love hearts drawn everywhere. This seemed very out of character for her ever-serious younger sister, and she had stood reading just the open pages.

Later, in private, Kuu had asked who Prince Ferio was, smiling as if it were a silly pet name her sister had been using for a local boy. Fuu had looked horrified and covered her mouth, eyes wide. She didn't really know what to say – she considered making up some story about an imaginary friend, some roleplaying game she did with Umi and Hikaru – but she had finally chosen to share her worries with Kuu, who had never yet let her down with a secret.

Kuu was a surprisingly believing person, enthralled by the stories of their first visit, aware of her sister's discomfort as she told the story of Emeraude and Zagato. After all, why would Fuu go into this much detail to make something so fantastical up, especially when it perfectly explained all her strange moods? She smiled when Fuu mentioned this Ferio character, who had obviously stolen her heart. And really, her little sister, dating a prince from another world?

Kuu had asked Fuu to wait as she went to her own room, rummaged for a few minutes and returned with a bulky camera. Fuu looked surprised as Kuu handed her the Polaroid 600, one of her most prized possessions. "Well," Kuu had said, a mischievous smile on her pretty face, "Maybe my favourite little sister can take a photo of her favourite young man for me."

Fuu in fact felt very relieved to have got this off her chest to someone that wasn't Hikaru, Umi, or some resident of New Cephiro or its neighbouring allies.

Of course, in her reverie, she was caught by a snowball from Hikaru in the small of her back. Umi laughed this time, collecting her own snowballs to launch at Hikaru while the redhead was distracted.

The girls piled in, tired and wet, to the living room at Fuu's house – the closest of their residences to the Tokyo Tower. Kuu had been forewarned by mobile mail, and had prepared mugs of hot chocolate for the girls when they returned. Fuu had asked her sister not to say anything she knew about their situation; she wasn't sure how Hikaru and Umi would react to someone else knowing about their story.

"Are you sure this is the best thing you should have done, the day before you have that competition, Hikaru-san?" Fuu asked, warming her hands on the hot beverage.

Hikaru nodded, "Having fun with my two best friends? Of course that is the best idea, Fuu-chan!"

Umi smiled at the elder Hououji sister as she was passed her cup of hot chocolate, "Thank you very much, Kuu-san. This is just what we need! It's very cold out."

Kuu made a little curtsey with a pleased smile and exited the room, informing Fuu that she would be out with her own friends for the rest of the day, and wishing Hikaru the best of luck with earning her scholarship to CLAMP School.

A few hours later, Hikaru regretfully went home on her own; Fuu and Umi walked her to the nearest Metro station, as they planned to stay at Fuu's to study, Umi would sleep over, and they would all meet at CLAMP School the next day to watch Hikaru's match. It felt strange to do something without Hikaru, but it was an important time for all three of them, and things like this had to be put to the back of their minds. They wished Hikaru a good night's sleep and waved her off as she entered the station on the way back to her dojo.

"So, Umi-san, what did you want to study this evening?" Fuu asked, sat on the floor with Umi. They had made up a futon on the floor for her, in contrast to Fuu's modern western-style single bed against the wall.

Umi looked very disheartened, unpacking her books from that same little suitcase, "I don't feel very much like studying tonight, Fuu. I'm afraid I'm never going to get in. I feel like the learning to CLAMP's standard is taking a very long time to happen. All I really want to study is foreign language and cooking! Why do I need to have all these technical subjects, too?"

Fuu gave her friend a sympathetic smile, "Umi-san, you know I am happy to help you until you feel you are completely confident to pass this entrance exam into the school. Unfortunately, I cannot fathom their entrance requirements either. They just have to ask for the same subjects as every other school in Japan, I suppose, even if they do offer specialist education."

"What will you be studying, Fuu?"

Fuu smiled, looking across at her computer which was displaying a screen saver, "I will be taking Mathematics and Computer Science, Umi-san. I am afraid that the three of us will be taking completely different subjects, but we will always be able to have library sessions, Japanese Studies and our lunches together. Maybe even extra-curricular activities too."

Umi was warmed by this reassurance, but she had to ask; "Fuu, those subjects won't be very helpful when you become princess of New Cephiro, will they?"

Fuu sighed, looking amused, the same way she did every time Umi brought this up, "I am not thinking about that yet, Umi-san. I just want to study the subjects I enjoy the most. I consider New Cephiro's monarchy to be more decorative than anything, so I don't assume Politics or any other subject would really be very beneficial to me. Now then. Mathematics, or Sciences?"

Umi groaned, but got ready for a late night of studying with her genius best friend.

•••

The CLAMP School seemed to have rather a large subscription to its scholarship competitions, especially when it came to any of the traditional martial arts. Thankfully, the snow had caused them to hold this competition inside, and Umi and Fuu were just taking their coats off and settling down when Hikaru came into view for her deciding match. These competitions had taken place over several days already, days that Umi and Fuu were unable to attend due to their own commitments with their own schools.

They had been told not to wave or make themselves known to Hikaru. She had to pretend they were not there. She had to bring everything she knew about her martial art into this one match, for she would be judged from her actions here. It could mean getting into the prestigious CLAMP School and getting a fantastic foundation for working with animals, or settling for that public school her somewhat conceited friends had tried to coerce her into attending.

Hikaru would be up against a highly regarded first-year member of the high school's kendo club, apparently well matched for her. Hikaru had to worry; she believed a lot in her own abilities, but she could never underestimate the girl she was up against here, if she was indeed a good match for her.

The match was long and difficult, though Hikaru discovered that she consistently held the upper hand due to her constant and dedicated training, as well as some fights against wild cards like Ferio and Lafarga that didn't conform to kendo principles. She emerged victorious to an awed crowd, and laughed nervously when they started to applaud and whistle. She looked for Umi and Fuu in the crowd and waved to them, giving them a thumbs up with her free hand, still clutching her sword. She had done it, and she was the first of the three Magic Knights to get into their dream school.

"You were so amazing, Hikaru!" Umi shouted, hugging her friend tightly; she had escaped from the spectators' seats to congratulate her, Fuu still politely trying to get out from between the people Umi had trampled.

"Yes, congratulations, Hikaru-san!" Fuu added, joining in with the hug, "Now we just have to hope that Umi-san and I can get in!"

"That will be no problem for you, Fuu," Umi said sadly, still unconfident with her abilities. She thought she might never get into CLAMP School at this rate, even with Fuu's tutoring.

"You'll be fine, Umi-chan! Besides, you have Fuu-chan teaching you!"

Fuu was quiet for a moment, and then spoke, "Umi-san, why didn't you try to get in the same way as Hikaru? I'm sure there is a way in for people good at fencing."

Umi shook her head, "I left it too late to enter that way; the fencing tournament registration finished long before Hikaru registered for the kendo route, and I didn't even know. This is the only option I have left."

"Well! Chin up, Umi-chan, the entrance exams aren't until February. They're two months away! Let's have a fun time for Fuu's birthday, and Christmas and New Year, and then we'll concentrate again. I can try to help you, too!"

Umi smiled, almost moved to tears by her two friends, "Thanks guys, you're the best."

•••

Fuu's parents and sister had always known that Fuu would want to see her friends on her birthday, and so they had organised a trip to the Tokyo Tower themselves as a surprise; they would go to a restaurant and visit some shops before arriving at the viewing platform. Finding this out on the morning of her fifteenth birthday, Fuu hid her worries and went to contact Hikaru and Umi in a slight panic over instant messenger.

They reassured her – her family shouldn't notice that they would disappear for a split second. Fuu wondered if she should mention that Kuu knew all about it, but thought better of it. She didn't really want her friends to know this. It was something special that the three of them shared, and she wasn't sure how they would react to knowing that someone else was in on the secret.

Fuu heard a knock at her door, and turned to her right to see Kuu dressed up and ready to go out, waving money in her gloved hand, "Mother and Father are treating us to breakfast out by ourselves, would you like to start your day the unhealthy way and go to the McDonald's down the road for breakfast, Fuu-san?"

Fuu smiled at her sister – they rarely did anything together alone, but had grown closer since Fuu had shared the secret about New Cephiro and Ferio – and nodded, "Please excuse me then, Kuu-oneesama, I shall wrap up for the weather!"

Dressed up in her new winter coat - a birthday present she got almost every other year - with a scarf, warm gloves and fur-lined boots, Fuu said goodbye for now in her group chat to Umi and Hikaru, and descended the stairs to find Kuu sitting ready in the kitchen, checking her phone for messages. Kuu stood up and offered her arm to Fuu, "Shall we go, then, Fuu-san?"

Fuu giggled and took Kuu's arm, waving to their parents – still dressed in their nightwear and dressing gowns – and the two sisters emerged onto the snowy street. There had been perhaps a few centimetres of snow in the night, just enough to enjoy without being dangerous. The neighbourhood children were already out and building snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other, so Fuu and Kuu made their way hastily down the street to avoid being hit, laughing with each other and enjoying the fresh air.

"You'll be visiting that other place with your friends today, won't you, Fuu-san?" Kuu asked, and was rewarded by a nod from her younger sister, "Will it be a problem that mother and father and I are there?"

Fuu shook her head now, busying herself with looking at the menu as they lined up for their orders, "You wouldn't even notice us gone. Last time, we were in New Cephiro for a week, but no time passed in Tokyo before we got back."

"Then maybe your birthday has already passed, Fuu-san!" Kuu giggled, and Fuu was appreciative of the fact that Kuu would believe every word she said about their time in the other world. It was refreshing to talk about it with someone other than Umi and Hikaru, "And I should make sure that you have my camera!”

Fuu did have to wonder for the rest of the morning, even as she, Kuu and her parents travelled towards Shiba Park to meet with Umi and Hikaru; what exactly did all of this time spent in New Cephiro do to their physical ages? Fuu always felt full of vitality and youth when she was there; it seemed to have a positive effect on her health, due to its lack of industrialisation, its clear air, and pure spring waters. She somehow felt that it might be making her more youthful rather than older.

A message from Umi suggested that she had brought two cakes in the basket she would be carrying; one for New Cephiro and one for the six of them to share later when they returned. Fuu mailed back her thanks, minutes before she was hugged aggressively and very loudly wished a happy birthday by her two best friends.

Fuu discovered that her parents had booked ahead at one of the restaurants in the Tokyo Tower, which was probably for the best, since it was so busy at this time of year. They ate a traditional Japanese winter meal, sharing a large communal bowl of oden, filling and warming, glad to be in from the cold and growing very red-faced and comfortable in the warmth of the restaurant.

Fuu and her two friends ran ahead of her family to the Tokyo Tower viewing platform, gathering their hands together in haste and disappearing to New Cephiro minutes before even Kuu had ascended the stairs. Only, Kuu did see something; as she got to the top of the stairs to the viewing deck, she couldn't see the three girls. Disconcertingly, just before her parents got to the deck, she saw the girls reappear from thin air, giggling; Fuu looking thoroughly happy and sporting a girly pinkish blush. She turned to Kuu and gave her a thumbs up, suggesting that she had got the photo Kuu wanted, though was surprised when her sister responded with nothing more than a nervous smile.

Hikaru also had noticed something, checking her phone when they returned. Had another minute or so passed since last time? She exchanged glances with the bewildered Kuu, but neither of them said anything to the others.

Another hour was spent in the Tokyo Tower, Fuu's parents slightly wearied already and wondering how their daughter and her friends managed to come here almost every week without getting bored. Fuu and Umi didn't seem to notice that Hikaru and Kuu were quieter and slightly worried, even when Kuu wasn't quite as enthusiastic as usual about the chick pastries she liked so much from the Tower's patisserie kiosk. Umi was happy that she had a break from studying for a few weeks, and she was starting to think that she might have a thing for Ascot after all; she was even allowing Hikaru to tease her about it, which was a sign in itself. Fuu on the other hand was just smiling happily to herself, her hand over the freshly developed Polaroid exposure in her deep coat pocket. Umi and Hikaru didn't know anything about this one.

Ferio had of course been quite confused but amazed by Kuu's camera, and seemed concerned that Fuu had shared this information with someone other than the two other Magic Knights, sister or not. He seemed pleased to hear that she and Kuu got along well enough to share this, though, and he said he wished he'd been able to spend more time with his sister during his childhood. He had sat cheerfully on the sofa in his lounge after this conversation, despite his back still being a little stiff, allowing Fuu to take his photograph, and then pleading for one of her. Fuu was amused by the novelty using the camera brought him, resulting in a beautiful natural smile in the photograph Ferio now kept by his bed.

"I'm sorry, Kuu-oneesama, one of your photographs from this cassette is back with Prince Ferio. He was very amused," Fuu said, handing back her sister's camera as they sat in her room later. Kuu still didn't look quite like she was feeling one hundred percent okay, and Fuu finally noticed this, "What is the matter, Kuu-oneesama?"

Kuu fiddled with the sleeves of her jacket for a moment before looking into her sister's identical green eyes, "Fuu-san, I don't think you are immediately returning from the other world. I saw you and Hikaru-san and Umi-san appear from nowhere before mother and father got up to the observation deck. We were only a minute or so behind you, and I don't think anyone else saw, but I thought it was very strange."

Fuu was surprised, and slightly worried. Was there something up with the link between the Tokyo Tower and New Cephiro? She bit her lip, holding on to the photograph tightly against her chest.

"But, Fuu-san, that is probably something to worry about with Hikaru-san and Umi-san; I don't think I can offer any help. May I see this young prince you like so much?"

"Oh, of course!" Fuu said, putting those worries to the back of her mind for now. She handed the photograph carefully to Kuu, her blush returning.

"Oh my," Kuu said, grinning at the photo, "He is quite a handsome prince, isn't he?"

Fuu allowed herself a girlish giggle, "I'm glad you approve, Kuu-oneesama."

Kuu squinted, something catching her eye, "And this in his ear, Fuu-san, is this the same kind of ring you have on your finger? Did you forget to tell me you are engaged?"

Fuu looked alarmed, and then went on to explain her non-engagement, rather that there was no real concept of marriage in New Cephiro, and it was more a statement of affection than anything, but that Hikaru and Umi had made the same mistake in asking her. And then Kuu insisted with some firmness that Fuu had to talk to their parents about it if she intended to leave Earth to marry this boyish Prince Charming of hers, and she left her younger sister worrying on her bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Christmas and New Year passed in Tokyo without much out of the ordinary. The girls celebrated amongst themselves and found little time to go to New Cephiro – besides, the Tokyo Tower was always very busy at this time of year. Christmas was meant to be a very romantic time in Japan, but Fuu found herself spending it with her family and no visit to Ferio. She wouldn't want to give him any opportunity to be too romantic just yet, anyway. She was sure he was a lot more experienced in those sorts of things than she knew about. She was pretty sure he was a little older than her, anyway. And really, what girl would resist that sort of proposition?

Aside from herself, of course. She was above the age of consent for her country, and she had to assume that there wasn't really any sort of guideline about it in New Cephiro – she had to wonder what Ferio's equivalent Earth age was, though – but really, she had to think about other things and be very careful about doing...that.

She had seen a little about it in those "teen issues" manga that had been circulating at their schools since they turned thirteen, but she'd never given much thought to it. Would she want to do that? The comics had dealt with all the ugly possible outcomes, and she wasn't sure it was a true representation...if their recent half-clothed skin-on-skin contact was anything to go by.

"Fuu, what exactly are you thinking about?" Hikaru asked, sat on Umi's four-poster bed as Umi was trying to study under Fuu's supervision again. Hikaru had noticed that her friend's face had grown increasingly pink, and the blonde was never really one to stop and think about the sort of things she was currently thinking of.

"Nothing..." Fuu breathed, pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Don't let him push you into anything, will you, Fuu?" Umi added, not looking up from her work.

Fuu went a much brighter red and spluttered, unable to form any words, much to Umi's amusement.

"But seriously, Fuu, I know you're helpless in Ferio's presence. Don't just do things to make him happy. Make sure you're doing what you want to do. I'm sure your parents don't want to be grandparents just yet."

Fuu covered her face with her hands, and it was hot to the touch. Hikaru and Umi just kept on saying things that made her more and more embarrassed, and she wasn't half as impressed as the other two seemed to be by this situation, "Well, we won't be doing anything like that until we are married, I'm sure..."

"Can't you just take something from Earth to make sure you don't get pregnant?" Hikaru asked with a wavering straight face, to raucous laughter from Umi as Fuu looked even more horrified at the redhead's suggestion.

"How could you...I wouldn't be able to buy...or go to the doctor for...Hikaru-san, really!"

Hikaru also joined in with the laughter, and Fuu had to giggle nervously at this. She was glad, she supposed, that if nothing else, this brought Hikaru and Umi great entertainment.

"Could I tell you something?" Fuu asked, suddenly thinking of her conversation with Kuu on her birthday. The other girls nodded, still looking amused. Fuu supposed they thought she would tell them something about what she and Ferio had been up to, but she knew she was going to disappoint or even upset them, "Kuu-oneesama said that she saw us appear from thin air in the Tokyo Tower. I don't think we are really as safe and inconspicuous in our travels to New Cephiro as we think."

Hikaru picked at Umi's bed cover, "I have noticed, Fuu-chan. I have been checking the time on my phone when we return; I don't think everything is going quite right either," she looked up at Fuu, "But what did you tell Kuu-san? Did you have to tell her about what's going on?"

The ensuing conversation left them all quite upset and confused, and Umi appeared rather more upset about Fuu sharing their secret with Kuu than she seemed worried about the travelling. Fuu hadn't really spoken to Kuu recently about the whole issue, because it had left a bit of a sore point between them, and it saddened her more that it had also left Umi angry at her.

They all parted on something of an awkward note, Fuu and Umi's hearts very heavy, and Hikaru wondering why both of them had taken this so badly, and not worried so much about what she considered to be much more important; the problem with time passing while they were away. She decided to take matters into her own hands and discuss this with Lantis and Clef sometime when she was in New Cephiro again.

•••

January passed far too quickly for Umi's liking. It was February, the month the exams would take place for entrance to CLAMP School, and her relationship with Fuu was still slightly strained, so she hadn't invited her around for study sessions without Hikaru present at least. With just five days to go before the exams, she had considered asking her parents to pay for a tutor, but was still convinced that if they didn't want her to go to CLAMP School, they weren't going to pay for that either.

A letter had arrived in the mail that morning, telling her when her exam was, and where she should go to attend it. She had disappeared into her room after reading it, leaving it on the table for her parents to find. Since then, she had been laying face down into the pillows, thinking she could really do with a visit to New Cephiro to unwind.

"Umi-chan," came a voice at the door. Umi looked up as the door opened; it was her mother, carrying a hot drink for her, "Ah, my dear, I thought you would be studying..."

Umi sat up on the bed, but wouldn't meet her mother's eyes, "Did you read my letter, Mom?"

Mrs Ryuuzaki nodded, setting the drink down on Umi's white desk, "We're very proud of you, Umi-chan, pushing yourself so hard to get into this school. But are you really sure you wouldn't rather go to the Kanazawa school?"

Umi nodded hard and hid her eyes behind her hair as her mother sat down next to her, setting an arm around her shoulders. She thought she might choke up, "I want more than anything to spend the next few years with Hikaru and Fuu, and if this is the only way that you'll let me do it, then I'll do it this way."

Mrs Ryuuzaki looked very disconsolate, and pulled her teenage daughter into a hug, "Don't go to the exam, Umi-chan. You've put yourself through enough stress already."

"Don't go to the exam?" Umi demanded, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked up at her mother in shock.

Her mother pulled a handkerchief from her apron and wiped Umi's face as the tears spilled, "No, Umi-chan, I mean that father and I will pay your scholarship. We'll stay here in Tokyo so you can go with them, if that's what you want. It won't affect our jobs. We just thought that we knew better."

Umi hugged her back, crying more freely now, "Thank you so much, Mom."

"Make sure you help and support your friend Fuu-san, though, okay? She still has to do those exams. She could probably do with your encouragement."

Umi smiled, wiping her own eyes, "I don't think Fuu needs any help, Mom. She is the most intelligent girl I know. She's going to ace it."

Fuu herself was just sitting at her desk several miles away, plotting a study timetable for her last week on her computer. She noticed the light on her mobile phone flashing, and even though she had put it in silent mode for studying, she picked it up to check her messages.

It was from Umi. It was a long mail, apologising for how she had acted before, and telling Fuu that she had great news. She didn't happen to share this "great news", however, and so Fuu looked up Umi's number and called her.

"I'm going to CLAMP School, Fuu!" Umi almost screamed down the phone as Fuu heard her pick up, "My parents realised it was upsetting me and now they're going to pay for me to go!"

Fuu put the phone back against her ear, as she had been holding it at arm's length, and now she had a huge smile on her face for her friend, "That's great, Umi-san! Now we just have to see if I can get in."

"I have no doubts about that, Fuu." Umi beamed, "But Hikaru and I will be there to see you come out of the examination hall, I promise!"

They chatted for another short while, happy to be talking to each other again. Umi declared that she didn't want to fight with Fuu again, and thus they swore to never fight again. Fuu was pleased that Umi had apologised, and happily accepted it, she herself apologising for getting into a situation where she had to share their secret with Kuu.

"Kuu-oneesama does think Ferio is very cool too, though, Umi-san," Fuu giggled, remembering when her sister had seen the photograph. Umi laughed with her.

"I think I'm going to talk to Ascot properly when we're next in New Cephiro, Fuu," Umi admitted, "I don't think there's any point delaying the inevitable, do you?"

"Oh, I agree. I'm very pleased for you, Umi-san. When do you think our next visit will be?"

Umi considered this, looked at her calendar on the wall, and then said, "Well, I think it would be nice to go the evening after your exam, don't you think? If Hikaru is free, of course."

"That sounds great, Umi-san," Fuu agreed, "Should I leave that up to you? I should probably get to studying. Congratulations on getting into CLAMP School, again!"

Umi grinned, "Thank you Fuu! Of course I'll talk to Hikaru. Good luck with your studying. Bye bye!"

"Bye, Umi-san."

Fuu snapped her phone shut and walked over to her bed. She opened the drawer of her little bedside cabinet and pulled out the photo of Ferio that was now hidden in her diary - she couldn't leave it out, her parents might ask questions about who he was, where he lived, and what on earth he was wearing. She smiled at the photo, taking care not to get any fingerprints on the glossy exposure. She might ask Kuu to borrow it again, and take a photo with Umi, Hikaru, Lantis and Ascot as well next time. She was sure Kuu would love to see them, even if she was slightly upset about Fuu possibly favouring them over her family and Tokyo

•••

"Prince, you didn't 'marry' Fuu at all, did you?" Ascot asked very quietly, deciding he had to be the decent one here and ask the question.

Ferio looked at him, his golden eyes wide in confusion, but then the prince regnant broke into laughter as he remembered Ascot's interpretation of all this, "Oh dear, Ascot. Oh dear. No, we did not 'marry' yet."

"I just think you should wait," said the summoner, trying but failing to ignore Ferio's chuckling, "Prince, I am trying to be serious. She is a young lady and she shouldn't be forced into these things!"

Lantis always seemed to turn up when their youngest friend was at his most awkward, and he looked at the hysterical prince and then at Ascot, "So you won't be 'marrying' Umi any time soon, Ascot?"

Ascot's face came over with a look of horror; he flushed bright red rather in the style of Fuu, and shook his head wildly, "No way, no way!"

Lantis was much better at keeping a straight face than Ferio was, and he wore only a small smirk, "Are you sure she isn't into that sort of thing? I mean, she, Hikaru and Fuu attended a 'marriage' not long ago."

"I don't understand why the people of their world would want to do this sort of thing in public!" Ascot wailed, throwing his arms in the air. He just didn't understand why the others thought this was okay, and why they kept laughing about it so much. Were Lantis and Ferio really that dismissive of something like this?

Well, Ascot considered, maybe both of them had been there already and it didn't have any meaning for them any more, but he certainly wasn't going to stand for it. Ignoring the other two laughing as he walked away, he went to find Caldina to talk this out...only to find her in the act of 'marrying' Lafarga.

"Augh!" Ascot cried, slamming the door and running down the corridor to his room.

•••

Fuu felt slightly cheated as she left her last exam at CLAMP School campus, as she was the only one of the Magic Knights that didn't get her yes or no immediately. However, she forgot about this entirely as her friends enveloped her in a hug to rival the one she'd received on her birthday, asking how she'd done, and squeezing her harder when she said she was confident in her results.

"It's all over, we're all in!" Hikaru squealed, jumping up and down.

Fuu laughed, "Subject to results, Hikaru-san!"

"As if you have any chance of not getting in," Umi said, giving Fuu a gentle nudge as they walked off towards the CLAMP School's own Metro station, "So you'll find out next month, just after my birthday?"

Fuu nodded, swiping her Suica card over the gate in the station, "That's right, Umi-san."

The other two followed, and to their surprise even the athletic Hikaru wasn't able to keep up with Fuu today as she descended stairs and escalators at speed, anxious to return to New Cephiro and meet up with Ferio.

Only a few stops were between CLAMP School and the Tokyo Tower - yet another benefit of attending this school next year. They could travel to Cephiro almost every day, if they wanted! Fuu giggled to herself and happily pulled her coat and scarf cosily around her neck. She thought somewhat absently that her hair could do with a cut soon, as it was getting almost past her shoulders. Or would Ferio prefer that her hair was longer? Only Caldina seemed to have much shorter hair in New Cephiro, and she wasn't even Cephiran. Hikaru and Umi also had long hair...

She asked this question to Hikaru and Umi themselves, who told her that she should only do what she wanted with her hair, never mind whatever the expectations were in New Cephiro. She smiled and agreed with them. Ferio had fallen in love with her while she had this hairstyle, after all!

"I will need some new glasses soon, though," Fuu added, looking out of the window of the Metro train as they pulled into Shiba Park's station.

Umi had the foresight this time to grab onto Fuu's arm, stopping her from getting away from them quite so much this time. Fuu would now display as much enthusiasm as Hikaru when they went to New Cephiro, something quite uncharacteristic of this normally calm and collected girl.

Hikaru once again checked her mobile phone for the time before they disappeared through that portal into New Cephiro. They had this time chosen a particularly quiet part of the observation deck, just in case anyone witnessed the same thing Kuu had.

The Prince of New Cephiro had apparently been waiting around in the throne room all day; they didn't quite have the hang of time between there and Earth, and it was difficult to tell what time they might arrive there on any given day. At least they had got used to the days, though.

He was surprised to be cuddled very hard by this same enthusiastic Fuu, looking with wide eyes at Hikaru and Umi before smoothing Fuu's ruffled blonde hair and planting a kiss on the top of her head, "And to what do I owe this, Fuu?"

She laughed into his chest, happier than ever before, "All three of us are going to school together, Ferio! I think I did really well at my test today."

Upon puzzling over their unnecessarily complicated Earth education systems and deciding this was a good thing, he grinned, nuzzling her hair, "That's fantastic, Fuu," he then looked up at the other two, "You must all be very pleased."

Hikaru nodded like she had never been more sure of anything else before in her life, accompanied by a happy smile from Umi.

Ferio had actually gathered some more sensible people to help him plan this 'wedding' he was so adamant about having; Clef and Presea, to be precise, with Lantis wearing his sensible face in present company.

Clef didn't know a lot about this, surprisingly, but he was willing to put his own ideas into the conversation. They figured that marriage on Earth was the greatest declaration of love and devotion possible, and from what they gathered, it wasn't really restricted to any particular religion, tradition or political system. Ferio at least understood this thing with the rings, and Clef suggested he should probably clarify the situation with Fuu at some point.

Clef also added that it would be very good for state publicity and possible uptake if Ferio, as reigning Prince of New Cephiro, to be the first one to take part in this sort of ceremony. Just when were they going to get her to agree to this, though? Fuu and her friends had made it quite clear that they intended to finish 'high school', which would take another three Earth years. Since the Cephirans were still not so hot on this kind of time conversion, they weren't really sure when this would be happening.

Lantis seemed only to declare that he wasn't going to get any good information from Hikaru, because she only seemed to be able to produce childish and slightly romanticised descriptions of marriage, and it wasn't really helpful when she kept declaring that she would like to marry both Lantis and Eagle...and all her other friends.

Ferio had trouble not laughing at Lantis's situation with Hikaru. The magic swordsman had always been a serious and stoic figure. For him to be involved with the naïve and ever-cheerful Hikaru, even without their massive height difference, made quite a strange picture, and Ferio was sure that many people other than himself puzzled over it. He was also sure that Umi and Ascot might make moves on each other sooner rather than later, which in some ways pleased him and in some ways made him worry for Ascot.

In any case, Ferio now held this wonderful girl in his arms, and he had to figure out the best time to propose properly. It should probably be in the privacy of his suite, he considered, knowing full well how shy and reserved Fuu could be in front of large groups of people, and he didn't want her to be publicly pressured to make a decision and not make either of them look bad in the process.

"Master Mage Clef," Fuu said, snapping Ferio out of his little daydream and releasing herself from his arms, "We should talk to you about the portal between New Cephiro and our world. We are starting to worry that it might be malfunctioning."

Hikaru wiped the smile off her face immediately and nodded seriously, "I have found that sometimes, when we return, a few minutes have passed. My phone always stops operating in New Cephiro, and the clock resumes back in Tokyo, but I have been worried about this. The first few times, it has come back immediately as barely a second passing."

Umi added, "And Fuu's sister even saw us disappear and reappear after a few minutes the other day when we came here. We had no idea. Is there something wrong with the portal?"

Clef looked very surprised, perhaps even worried. Ferio's arms fell to his sides, believing something to be very wrong if Clef didn't have one of his immediate, calming and educated answers, "I had no idea this was happening, girls. Are you sure there's something wrong? You're not just imagining things? Moreover, Fuu, did you share information about New Cephiro with your sister?"

Fuu nodded, looking at the floor, "I had to tell her. I cannot keep things from my own family. But, if I am honest, it was good to share it with someone outside the country or my two best friends, as sane as they have been keeping me for the last year."

Clef looked unsatisfied, but accepted what she had said. Fuu breathed a sigh of relief, and Ferio reached for her hand from behind her. As Clef continued to puzzle over the conundrum with the portal, Ferio pulled her quietly away through the corridors to that large panoramic window near his quarters.

"What do you think will happen if the portal starts to fail?" Ferio asked her, looking out at Cephiro with a slightly pained look on his face. Fuu looked up at him, but he wouldn't look back at her, his eyes fixed on the beautiful world out in front of them, "I couldn't stand to lose my sister and you, Fuu. Not both of the people I love the most."

Fuu almost felt tears well up in her eyes, thinking about that final battle with Emeraude, but mostly wondering what she herself would do without Ferio in her life, and how bad she would feel to know he existed on this plane, without her, "I don't know, Ferio, but I do know that we're just going to keep coming here as long as we can."

Ferio finally looked down at her, his normally warm eyes rather more lukewarm and sad, "I value your comforting words, Fuu, but I still worry."

Fuu's green eyes widened as Ferio took her hand, and he stooped, to rest on one knee, much in the way he had kissed her hand at their first meeting. But now, he was holding that hand with the ring on her ring finger, and he was looking up at her with some intensive look in his eyes.

"Fuu Hououji, Magic Knight of Wind, girl from another world. Before I possibly lose you forever, would you consider, officially, becoming my wife?"

Fuu's left hand flew up to her mouth, not quite believing what she was hearing and getting involved in here. Married? Did they have enough time to get married? Did he expect her to stay in Cephiro with him? What would she do if they were permanently separated?

"Fuu, please, do not think about the intricacies of my plan. This is a question from my heart, and you know in your heart how to answer it."

Fuu closed her mouth, steadied her nerves and looked back into those enchanting eyes of his, "Then yes, Prince Ferio, I would very much love to be your wife."

Ferio looked more relieved than anything, and he stood up and immediately enveloped her in a very tight hug. They stood there for a few minutes before Fuu started to tear up and sobbed uncontrollably into his tunic. Ferio made no move to comfort her, as he knew they were tears of happiness rather than desperation, and he let a few tears fall from his own eyes. With that, they both burst into nervous laughter, and shared a small kiss.

Well, well. Engaged to be married at barely the age of fifteen. What on Earth would her parents say? What would Umi and Hikaru say? What would Clef say to the Prince of Cephiro marrying off to some girl from another world?

"Stop your worrying, Fuu," Ferio laughed, pulling her back towards the throne room. Fuu was alarmed by this, and tried to stand her ground on the slippery floor, only succeeding in looking extremely awkward and almost falling over. Ferio chuckled and stopped to steady her, comforting her with another hug, "Fuu, they're going to find out sooner or later. Why not let them hear the news from us?"

"Ferio, what do you expect from me once we are married?" Fuu asked, flushing such a bright shade of pinkish red that Ferio knew exactly what sort of things she was asking about, and he inwardly laughed at her nervousness. No, perhaps Fuu hadn't been prepared for all of these things to happen so fast...

"I expect you to do whatever you are comfortable with, Fuu. You shouldn't let anyone push you to do anything you don't want to do, even if it's the guy you love so much," He rewarded her with one of his most charming smiles, the kind that always turned her legs to jelly and almost swoon into unconsciousness.

And so, Prince Ferio of New Cephiro and the future Princess Fuu of New Cephiro announced their somewhat rushed official engagement to the awed audience in the throne room, not even Ascot making a noise despite his continued horror at this entire concept.

"I would like for Fuu and I to be married regardless of this problem with the portal," Ferio explained firmly to Clef, "And we will figure out the important information after that. For now, I just want her to be mine."

•••

Fuu was almost shaking. What was she going to tell Kuu when she got home? She had already been annoyed about the possibility of Fuu disappearing off to another world forever, and while she was incomprehensibly happy about the engagement, this was just going to bother her and ruin her mood. Added to that, nobody knew why the portal was failing, and it seemed to have become forgotten behind the excitement of the engagement.

She and Ferio, after a couple of hours spent getting nowhere with this portal dilemma, retired back to his princely suite. They made small talk for a while, before finding something more meaningful to talk about. After all, Ferio had promised her that one day, he would tell her about his childhood.

"I don't really remember much before Emeraude became the Pillar, not even having biological parents. I remember, somewhere in the corners of my mind, there was a former Pillar who passed her post to Emeraude. I seem to recall that we always used to call her an aunt. Clef really raised us from our births, and you can probably tell that I left his care a lot earlier than my much more well-bred sister did."

Fuu giggled to herself here, and Ferio flashed her a smile before continuing.

"I would think, from this information, that it's general in our family that the first-born of each generation becomes the Pillar, while the second child produces heirs, including the next pillar. So as far as I can tell, the second-born of the second-born becomes the reigning Prince or Princess. However, Emeraude and I were comparatively young when tragedy struck her, and I obviously had not produced any children," Not legitimate ones, anyway, Ferio considered, "So the Pillar system was up for grabs, and perhaps even the whole royal family."

"Where did you grow up, though?" Fuu asked, as she'd always been wondering about this but didn't like to bring up this sort of thing in case it upset him. It still upset her – she had killed his only family member, after all.

"Ah," said Ferio, and he brought out a new book; an atlas, it seemed. Fuu shifted over to sit next to him so they could study this map carefully, and Ferio pointed to the very south west tip of Cephiro; "This little place, Aueria by the Sea. You wouldn't have travelled there in your journey, I imagine."

Fuu shook her head, and asked if there were any pictures in the atlas of that particular village. Ferio laughed and explained that there weren't any published pictures of anywhere in New Cephiro, since there wasn't anything like the 'camera' she had brought with her several weeks ago.

"I'd like to see this little place sometime," Fuu said, "It must be lovely on the coast."

"It really was," Ferio said, nodding, "Although I have to wonder if it has changed much since Cephiro crumbled while we were awaiting the new Pillar. Much of the land remained the same once it was regenerated by peoples' hearts, but it hasn't always been perfectly the same since then. Besides, Aueria is right on the edge of the land; it would have been one of the first places to disappear."

Fuu looked quite sad about this, as she figured that Aueria was pretty much her lover's home town He'd certainly grew up or matured there, at least.

"Ferio, how old are you?" Fuu asked, breaking the train of thought slightly, "I never thought to ask. I mean, I am fifteen in Earth years, but there's the fact that you can't tell someone's age when it comes to people like Master Mage Clef."

Ferio looked surprised, "Well, Earth years aren't so different here, Fuu. And Clef is something of an oddity to us, though most people think from meeting Clef that people live forever here in New Cephiro without physically ageing. I'm actually about twenty years old. Well, a young-looking twenty-year-old."

"You're five years older than me?" Fuu quickly calculated, very surprised. Ferio was right; he did look very young for his age, even in normal terms, "This relationship would be illegal, where I live!"

"Really?" Ferio asked, a sly smile on his face, "Just the relationship?"

"Hmm, well, no, it would be the age of consent..."

Ferio tried and failed to hide his grin as Fuu looked quite embarrassed and uncomfortable, "The age of consent for what, Fuu? For marriage?"

Fuu thought this was rather a dangerous conversation, because Ferio was leaning in close to her and had now kissed her ear. This sent shivers down her spine, and she felt about ready to melt into his arms, "For, um...sexual consent."

Fuu found herself, blushing wildly and unable to look into his eyes, pushed gently down on the bed next to the atlas and that glowing sphere of light from before. Ferio was looking into her eyes, and tilted her chin himself to get her to look at him, "So this, Fuu, this would be against the law in your world?"

Fuu swallowed hard, "Well, Ferio, I don't know. I don't think you've done anything illegal yet."

The smiled widened, "Yet?"

Fuu's eyes widened and she was about to clap her hands to her face when Ferio pinned them both down on the bed covers and began to kiss her neck. Fuu wondered if she could melt any further. Maybe she could move on to that state where her legs felt like jelly. In any case, she didn't think she would ever stop feeling so much like a dorky schoolgirl when he did this sort of thing.

“No, not yet, I'm not old enough, I'm not mature enough, I'm not ready – mentally, I mean.” Fuu trailed off, realising she was rambling. She looked up into his eyes, but she couldn't read his expression.

Ferio planted a long, warm kiss on her lips, making her moan softly, and then he rolled off to the side and laid there looking at her, "I'm sorry, Fuu."

Fuu looked at the bedclothes, then at the wall behind him, and then finally into his eyes, "It's okay, Ferio. I know you're only human. You understand, though, don't you? I can't do that sort of thing, because there is nothing here that would stop me having a baby, and I don't think that's what I want right now, even if it is yours."

Ferio smiled to himself, but then picked up on something she had said, "So there are ways to stop children being conceived, in your world?"

Fuu would have blushed if she wasn't red already; "Yes, we have a few different things. We have, ah...convenient physical barriers, and medication, for that sort of thing."

She thought she might have become more shy about this now she knew he was so much older. He should probably know how to treat a woman in this situation, and he would certainly have lots of experience...what, really, did he expect of her? She hoped he could hold on long enough for her to be ready to do this, because she certainly wasn't ready yet.

"I should really learn more of your world," Ferio said, moving closer and taking one of her hands in his, "It sounds fascinating. Sort of like somewhere between the technology of New Cephiro and Autozam."

"I suppose that would be a good description, yes," Fuu said, nodding sagely and feeling glad that Ferio hadn't pushed further on the conversation about contraception.

"So, you wouldn't consider indulging me if you did bring any of those devices to New Cephiro?" Ferio said nonchalantly, his eyes elsewhere.

Fuu wasn't sure whether to be angry, shocked, or a mixture of the two, "Ferio, please. It would be my first time, and it has to be special. Not like this. And do you really expect someone like me to have the courage to go and get those things from somewhere?"

Ferio laughed, though it was more like a boyish giggle, and she closed her eyes so she could think properly. Fuu wasn't really sure that she didn't want to go all the way with Ferio, given the way she normally acted around him. And it wasn't really helping, that upon relaying all this information to Kuu, that her sister had decided to give her that talk about protecting herself if this came up.

She wondered, with the portal starting to fail and all, if she should go ahead and do that with him, just in case she never had the chance. Although, what would happen if she became pregnant? Would an unborn child make it through all the travelling? She didn't even know what the travel through the portal did to her own health, aside from the natural state of New Cephiro itself being very beneficial.


	6. Chapter 6

Fuu really needed to talk to someone about how the portal was failing. She hadn't expected this to happen at all, and it was very worrying with how it had started doing this even before they were at senior high school. She didn't even have her results from the entrance exams; it was that bad.

The girls decided to hold off their visits to Cephiro for a while, feeling that their visits themselves, rather than any time-based deterioration, was causing 'damage' to the portal. This was despite wanting to celebrate Fuu's official engagement to Ferio; all of it had come rather of a sudden, and it was hard to decide between common sense and matters of the heart.

"While you were off getting engaged to the prince of a whole country, Fuu, I decided to talk to Ascot," Umi said rather suddenly, as the girls were out shopping one day. The day before Fuu's results, in fact.

"Really, Umi-san?"

Umi nodded sagely, "We decided we would become a couple, and see how it goes."

Hikaru grinned, distracted from her search for coins in her purse, "That's awesome, Umi-chan! Now the three of us have Cephiran boyfriends...well...or fiancés."

When they stopped and sat down at a café, Fuu sat and thought long and hard about Umi's relationship with Ascot. She had been so sure, the night Umi had excitedly told her about visiting Clef for comfort during their second stint in Old Cephiro, that something was going on there. Fuu also recalled Clef being a little pensive when he mentioned Umi that morning he had explained his map to her.

"I thought marriage didn't exist in New Cephiro," Hikaru said, counting out yen on the café table, "Because Lantis didn't know about it until he asked me how you would profess your love to someone. So what's changed since then?"

Umi laughed, "Well, as far as I can tell, our esteemed Prince Ferio has been talking about it with Lantis, Ascot and some other people, and they have kind of let Ascot believe that 'marriage' is the same thing as 'sex'. It's hilarious, he's just constantly horrified. Can you imagine believing that people do that sort of thing in front of their friends and family, and have photo albums, and a cake to celebrate..."

The three girls burst into laughter, and laughed quite uncontrollably for the next few minutes. Hikaru wiped a tear from her eye, and said, "Gosh, well Umi-chan, we should probably carry on the joke..."

"Whenever we next get to go to New Cephiro, that is," Fuu added, though was conscious that she was going to pull the mood down to something depressive; "But I get my exam results tomorrow, so maybe we can go after I receive my entrance confirmation?"

Umi nodded, "I think the portal can handle one more visit before we start to get serious about senior high school."

Hikaru had gone to buy a hot drink from a vending machine, and she now returned with a steaming cup of cinnamon-scented hot chocolate, "Guys, I just realised, I haven't really checked on Eagle in a long time. Clef said he's getting better all the time, but I haven't been allowed to go and see him for a while."

Fuu smiled, "Well, then tomorrow will be a good opportunity to do that too, Hikaru-san."

•••

It was no real surprise at all that Fuu got her entrance confirmed to CLAMP School, and the three of them celebrated loudly at the front gates of the school once they had torn themselves away from that final ceremony. It was time to travel to New Cephiro again, although they were conscious that they shouldn't take too much mass through the portal, and try to make the most of their stay.

And so, once again, the girls were on a Metro ride from CLAMP School to Shiba Park.

"Don't you think we could borrow clothes while we're living there?" Hikaru said, carrying a small bag with only the barest of necessities in it; nothing like the massive case she had taken a few months ago, "They're not exactly short of clothes in that palace, surely."

Umi agreed, "It would be nice to wear traditional Cephiran dress, really. Considering we might live there one day, I'm sure it would be nice to integrate. Do you think they'll dress Fuu up like a princess, rather than allowing her to roam the palace in jeans and hoodies?"

"Please, Umi-san, I do sometimes wear a skirt outside school," Fuu added sheepishly, sat quietly next to the other two as she tried to get a connection to her sister's phone, "Ah, Kuu-oneesama? Can you please tell mother and father that I passed the entrance exams? Yes, I figured I was having trouble because you were also trying to call me. Thank you. Thank you very much! I will see you later for dinner."

Umi marvelled at the fact that Fuu and her sister acted much like this was no big achievement, but then decided that in her household, the perspectives for educational success were probably set slightly differently. Their parents were both important scientific researchers, after all.

"I think it would be inconvenient to always dress something like Princess Emeraude, though, don't you think?" Hikaru considered, remembering the beautiful flowing dress that the late princess had worn in every vision, memory, painting and tapestry she had appeared in, "I hope they give Fuu-chan something more...practical."

"Practical isn't a word in the Cephiran vocabulary when it comes to clothing, Hikaru-san. Have you seen all the shoulder armour, capes, gloves, jewellery and things l like that?" Fuu reminded her, thinking about what their friends wore, "And Master Mage Clef always used to wear that horn-like jewel on his forehead. I do not know what sort of cultural significance it might hold, but I think it probably wasn't of any real benefit to him."

Umi giggled, "I always just thought it looked kind of rude."

This made Hikaru laugh as well, and Fuu tried not to in order to maintain her image of being the mature and proper one. She had a reputation to uphold, anyway, if she was going to become a princess.

Oh dear, was she getting so very used to the idea already?

The queue for the Tokyo Tower was very long again today. Fuu wondered if they would ever get in, but today she was feeling very apprehensive about it. Every time they travelled through the portal, they were damaging it a little bit, and their decisions for whether or not they'd live there were coming closer and closer.

Fuu knew she'd never be able to say no to Ferio at the moment, but if she was honest she felt they were still in the 'honeymoon period' of their relationship, and she was waiting for him to become more comfortable with her and start showing some more of his flaws. What if she got stuck living in Cephiro and then they fell out or broke up?

She expressed these thoughts to Umi and Hikaru, who regarded her with surprise and then gave her a reassuring pat on the back, saying that if they all decided to go and live in New Cephiro, it would always work out okay because they were together.

"And will you make time for us when you're Princess of New Cephiro, Fuu-chan?" Hikaru asked, bringing a wry smile to Fuu's face.

"Of course, Hikaru-san," Fuu said, feeling that she should ruffle her small friend's hair, but withholding, "I would never forget about you two! Besides, aren't we going to live in the castle together forever?"

Umi was the only one to notice the strange looks they were getting from various people stood in the line with them, and said quite loudly and clearly, "Guys, we probably shouldn't get so noisy and enthusiastic about this RPG in public."

There was a blank stare from Fuu and Hikaru before they both realised what Umi was doing, and then had to hold in sniggers.

"Ah yes, sorry Umi-chan, but I am so excited to see whether we get to stay there or not! And we have to roll to see if Fuu-chan is going to marry Prince Ferio..."

"Did we decide the odds on that?" Fuu asked, hiding her amusement behind her hair.

"I'd say they're pretty high, wouldn't you?" Umi said with a sly smile, making Hikaru giggle and Fuu return to her schoolgirlish blush.

They entered the Tower just five minutes later, paid their entrance fees and took a slightly more leisurely walk up to their observation deck. Fuu was still feeling heavy-hearted about this, and Umi and Hikaru noticed this - it seemed harder today to will themselves into New Cephiro.

"Fuu-chan, come on, we want to see Lantis and Ascot!" Hikaru said with a pout, shaking her friend's hand encouragingly. Umi did little but look at her in a concerned way.

"Okay," said Fuu, not wishing to disappoint her friends, "Okay, here we go."

The blinding flash of light happened, and Tokyo disappeared in favour of the beautiful world of New Cephiro below them.

"Wait!" screamed Umi, clenching her friends' hands harder than ever before, "Wait, we should be arriving in the throne room, not up here!"

Hikaru laughed, exhilarated, "Umi-chan, just go with it, this is fun! We haven't done this for so long! Besides, Fyula will come along to catch us really soon."

Fuu wasn't so sure about this, and she pulled her arm over to her face to push her glasses back up her nose, never letting go of Umi or Hikaru. Would anyone come to catch them? Fyula's absence - or any other beast for that matter - was too obvious now, and even Hikaru was starting to look worried. Umi had her eyes closed and was biting her lip.

"Mokona and the Rune Gods are gone, aren't they?" Fuu asked above the sound of rushing wind and Umi's panicked mumbling. Hikaru nodded her a hopeless yes, and Fuu worried she might run out of ideas soon. Hikaru and Umi had spells, but only for attack.

"Do you know where we are falling to?" Hikaru asked Fuu, looking below them, "I wonder if we can fall into some water."

Fuu nodded and looked down too, trying to remember the map that Clef had made. She got her bearings and nodded downwards, "I know that village, it's Aueria by the Sea, the one where Ferio grew up! We can fall into the sea there if we're lucky!" Fuu looked over to Umi, "I have a plan, Umi-san, please don't panic when I let go of you. Just hold on to Hikaru-san."

Umi's bright blue eyes snapped open, full of apprehension, "Fuu, don't do something stupid!"

Fuu gave her a nervous grin and let go of her two friends, clapping her hands together just hundreds of metres above the natural harbour of Aueria, and cried a spell, "Winds of Protection!"

Umi and Hikaru found themselves bound inside a green bubble with Fuu, and the rushing wind stopped. The three of them felt their feet touch the bottom of the bubble, and then they crashed into the sea.

"Now we just have to figure out what to do from here," Hikaru said, as the bubble rose back to the surface. They didn't seem too far from the coast. It was probably swimmable.

"We're going to get very wet, aren't we?" Umi asked, still shaking. The two of them looked at Fuu as they breached the surface, who was still concentrating very hard on maintaining the bubble with a frown on her face.

"I don't know, Umi-chan, do you think we can help maintain Fuu's spell with our will and use it to roll back to the shore?"

Fuu opened her eyes, still concentrating, "I don't think it would hurt to try that, Hikaru-san. There aren't many other options."

With that, Umi and Hikaru snatched her hands and willed as hard as they could for the protective green bubble to remain. They found it remained intact, and perhaps became even stronger. The three of them looked at each other and laughed, and then started rolling it towards the shore by walking in time. It was a hard process, because they seemed to have to exert five times the amount of effort to walk a normal distance, but they couldn't complain. Besides, the waves were also starting to pull them in towards the beach.

"We still have to wonder what's going on with the portal, though," said Umi, concentrating on keeping her steps in time with Fuu and Hikaru. She couldn't really accuse Fuu of being the one that caused them not to appear in the throne room, since she had basically saved their lives with her magic, but she did have her suspicions.

Hikaru nodded, having the same thoughts, "I think we need to talk to Clef again. We didn't really get any proper answers from him the last time we brought it up."

"Look!" said Fuu, pointing ahead of them with the arm Hikaru was holding, "There's people on the shore!"

The residents of Aueria by the Sea were understandably surprised to have three girls in strange clothes travelling towards them from the sea in a glowing green bubble.

"Thank god, I thought we'd all have water-damaged phones, swipe cards and MP3 players!" Umi said as the three of them landed on the beach.

The bubble slowly disintegrated, and Fuu promptly staggered over and collapsed in the sand, exhausted. Hikaru leapt to her side, Umi rescuing her possessions from the sea water.

"Fuu-chan, are you okay? Are you awake? Talk to me, Fuu-chan!"

Fuu smiled weakly, half-opening her eyes to Hikaru, "I'm okay, Hikaru-san, I just used a lot of my energy protecting us. And thank you, Umi-san, I wouldn't want to lose my phone to the Cephiran ocean."

The villagers witnessed all of this and approached them with some caution, obviously wanting to help but wondering if they were a threat.

"Of course," said Umi, "We didn't ever visit this part of Cephiro when we were here the past couple of times."

"Oh, I see," Hikaru said, and beckoned Umi over, "Look after Fuu-chan please, Umi-chan, and I will try talking to the people."

Umi nodded and began to pull Fuu a little further up the beach away from the water. Fuu thanked her, and Umi pulled her up to lean against her, "That was amazing, Fuu. You saved us."

Fuu smiled, "It's nothing, Umi-san. I'm sorry if I'm the one that caused the problem with the portal today. I hope it doesn't happen again."

Umi shook her head, "Let's not worry about that right now, Fuu. Let's worry about getting to the castle all the way over in northern New Cephiro without the help of Mokona or any supplies."

The girls stopped to watch Hikaru conversing with the villagers, who all suddenly took a step back and then fell to their knees in a gesture of honour; obviously Hikaru had just told them who they were. She was probably being particularly modest and not mentioning that she was the one that abolished the Pillar system, however.

They were slightly surprised when Hikaru cast an 'Arrow of Fire' into the air above them, but this only served to impress the villagers more, and, Fuu figured, serve as an emergency flare in case anyone such as Clef was monitoring from the castle.

Hikaru bounced back over to her friends, pleased to see the tired Fuu sitting up with Umi's support, "Fuu-chan, they would like to take us in because you are ill, and give us a place to rest and eat."

"And because we are the Magic Knights, right, Hikaru?" Umi added.

"Well, if there's one way for people to know you're not a threat to them in New Cephiro, surely telling them this information is the best way about it, Umi-chan!" she grinned and bent down to speak to Fuu more directly, "Fuu-chan, can you get up and walk for a little way with our help?"

Fuu smiled and nodded, and then her two friends helped her up. The villagers were starting to scatter, and a friendly older lady remained stood there with someone who was perhaps her daughter, around Ferio's age. The older lady introduced herself as 'Alhana', and her daughter as 'Laurana'.

It transpired that the two ran the local inn, and they were honoured to host the Magic Knights if they were in need of somewhere to stay. Laurana seemed to understand a little of the limited natural medicines that New Cephiro offered, and she took charge of Fuu.

The inn was an old stone and wood building with around five guest rooms, made in a style that reminded the girls of pictures and films of medieval Europe. There was apparently a wood stove burning somewhere in the inn because they could see smoke billowing from a high chimney, built a safe height from the thatched roof.

Hikaru and Umi were uncomfortable with leaving Fuu, but they had insisted on helping out at the inn to pay their way. Umi of course was very happy to cook, although Hikaru was somewhat lacking in these skills. Umi took Hikaru as her kitchen assistant, and soon sent her out foraging. They were getting better at identifying Cephiran produce, after all.

Hikaru didn't need to wander too far in order to find some friendly farmers that had heard her earlier story, who stacked her up with armfuls of vegetables and fruit. She declined the meat they offered, asking them to keep it for themselves due to their overwhelming kindness. Cheerful and pleased with herself, she started her walk back to the Aueria Inn.

It was at that point that she met up with Laurana, the innkeeper's daughter, who was searching in a small flowerbed behind the inn for herbs.

"Hello," said Hikaru, leaning over next to her as far as she could without dropping anything, "Is any of this very useful to you?"

Laurana looked up in surprise. She was a pretty girl, a little taller than Umi with the same kind of build, and long curly brown hair and brown eyes, "Where did you get all of that, Miss Hikaru?"

"The farmers back there gave it to me. The people in Aueria sure are friendly and helpful!"

Laurana nodded and smiled, "They certainly are when they're indebted this much to a few people," she started to pick through the leafy plants in Hikaru's arms amongst the other vegetables, "There is most of what I need here, yes, but there is just one more thing I will need to find before I return. Please could you make sure that Miss Umi keeps some of these aside for me?" and she pointed to three distinctly different plants.

Hikaru nodded very definitely and asked Laurana to help her put those in the bag that was slung over her shoulder. The Cephiran girl was quite surprised to find the different electronics and Hikaru's purse in there, and asked about them, "Ah, well this one is for communicating - it's called a mobile telephone but it stops working when I'm in New Cephiro, and this one is called an iPod, which plays music, and these are things we call cards, that we use for money."

"Your world is very advanced, then," Laurana said, taking a handkerchief from her apron to wrap the leaves in, "I will make sure I do not get your belongings dirty with this."

Hikaru smiled and nodded again, and bid her farewell.

"Oh, Miss Hikaru?"

The red-haired Magic Knight stopped and turned to face her.

"I don't suppose that while you were travelling, you met a young man with green hair and scars? I did not wish to trouble Miss Fuu with this question in her condition."

Hikaru opened her mouth to speak, and then reconsidered it. She had to mean Ferio, but she wasn't sure she should tell Laurana she knew him, because this all sounded quite ominous, "I'm not sure, we met a lot of people while we were travelling through Cephiro as Magic Knights."

"He's the Prince, isn't he?" Laurana asked, realising that Hikaru was covering with a story, "Miss Hikaru, I know you know who he is."

"He is the Prince of New Cephiro, yes," said Hikaru, however, she looked very sternly at her new acquaintance, "But you can't talk to our Fuu-chan about it if you have any history with him."

Hikaru walked back to the inn, feeling bad that she'd had to talk to their host that way, but glad that she was probably protecting Fuu from something she didn't need to know. Maybe she'd discuss this with Umi.

"Wow, that was fast, Hikaru!" Umi said, looking cheerfully at all the food Hikaru had got together, "I guess it will be a vegetarian meal, but that's great. There are really friendly people around here, huh?" She then noticed that her friend was not as cheerful as she should be, "Are you okay, Hikaru? Are you missing Lantis?"

Hikaru snapped out of it and shook her head, "No, I'm okay Umi-chan, but I need to talk to you about something when there's nobody else around," she said this because she knew Alhana was around somewhere, and dropped all the vegetables untidily on the central counter in the farmhouse-style kitchen, "But let's get started, shall we?"

Umi raised her eyebrows in surprise, but then she nodded and started looking around on the table. She recognised a fair few of them and started concocting some recipes in her mind, but she really wasn't as proficient at savoury meals as she was at desserts.

"There are some things in the larder as well, girls," Alhana said on her way past with arms full of laundry, "Please take what you need, since you are helping us out."

"Thank you, ma'am!" Umi called, and she and Hikaru ran over to the store-cupboard to investigate, "Does this look like cheese to you, Hikaru? And this big metal churn down here in the corner, perhaps it's animal milk?"

"We could try a little bit, I suppose, Umi-chan," Hikaru suggested, and at Umi's agreement she went hunting through the cupboards for cups or glasses - she returned with two and a small ladle.

Together they sampled the milk, pulled faces and swallowed it, "Perhaps it is a little like milky crème fraiche or soured cream?" Umi suggested, wiping her mouth, "Not good for drinking, but definitely good for cooking," she looked around, "Where do they have water around here, Hikaru?"

"I could ask Alhana; she only went out to the back garden," Hikaru suggested, "Why don't you go and check on Fuu-chan?"

"Wait!" Umi said as her friend stood up, "Hikaru, what did you want to tell me when we were alone?"

"Ah," said Hikaru, "I think Laurana has some history with Ferio, because she asked me about him when I went to get food. Although I pretty much told her that he was with Fuu-chan and that she shouldn't mention it to her."

Umi looked surprised, "What kind of history?"

"I'm not sure, Umi-chan, but didn't you think Ferio was a little...you know...when we first met him? Flirty?"

"Caddish," Umi decided, to which Hikaru agreed, "But he's really changed since Emeraude's death and having Fuu in his life."

"I don't think this is going to end well," Umi sighed as she and Hikaru moved out of the kitchen to go their respective ways for their next tasks, "Oh and Hikaru, don't you still have that mirror pendant? Can't you get hold of Lantis?"

"It's in our room at New Cephiro Castle because I didn't want to risk losing it in our portal trips..." Hikaru said, "But I'll try willing it here, I suppose, and I can send another flame up into the sky while I'm outside."

"Thanks, Hikaru," Umi said, and she began her ascent of a rather crude staircase, glad of the well-treaded rubber soles of her boots - and also quite glad that they hadn't suffered to much from the sea water and sand, since they were quite expensive and she didn't want to have to explain anything about that to her parents.

She wasn't really sure which room Fuu was in, so she crept around and looked through cracks in the doors. She found one at the end of the corridor with the door slightly open, and Fuu lay on the bed looking drowsy.

"Hikaru has got us some really good food, Fuu!" Umi said with a big smile on her face as she entered Fuu's room.

Fuu smiled back half-heartedly and said, "That's great, Umi-san. I'm sorry I haven't been able to help."

"Well, we wouldn't be doing this if you weren't indisposed," said Umi, and then saw Fuu looking more apologetic than before, "Sorry, Fuu. What I mean is, we wouldn't be here if you hadn't been able to save us."

"We did it together, Umi-san!" Fuu responded, laying back into the pillows again, "Ah, Laurana-san has been very good to me so far. She said she was going to make me some revitalising potion, so I believe she has gone looking for plants."

"Yes, I think Hikaru saw her when she went out looking for food," Umi said, and then she sat down on Fuu's bed, "Fuu, we think Laurana might know who Ferio is. Hikaru asked Laurana not to talk to you about it, but I just thought you should know."

"Not talk about what, Umi-san?" Fuu asked, looking confused.

Umi sighed. Whoops, she'd given too much away, "Well, we think he might have known her more...closely...when uh, didn't you say he grew up here in this village once Emeraude became the Pillar?"

"I see," said Fuu, and she turned her head to look out of the open window - her carer had left the shutters open so she could take advantage of the fresh Cephiran sea air, "Well, I can't expect him to have been perfect his whole life, can I?"

Umi was surprised that Fuu hadn't taken this badly at all, and she patted her friend's arm, "Are you sure that's okay, Fuu?"

Fuu shrugged, and held Umi's hand, "I couldn't use Ascot as an example, but you wouldn't think Hikaru is the first girl Lantis has ever loved, would you?"

Umi shook her head, "I suppose you're right. Maybe you should talk to him about it, though, if it starts to bother you. I don't think Laurana will speak to you about it, though."

Fuu hesitated, and then thought this was as good a time as any; “Umi-san, about Master Mage Clef--”

"Umi-chan!" Hikaru's voice came from downstairs, and then they heard her stomping her way up the staircase in her slightly heavier boots, "Umi-chan, there are two pails of fresh spring water in the kitchen now, and look!"

Hikaru appeared at the door looking very pleased with herself, and she held up the gold mirror pendant that Lantis had given her so long ago.

"Hikaru, don't be so loud, you'll disturb the other guests." Umi hushed, "But well done! Have you spoken to Lantis?"

"Yes, and he's going to tell the others that you two are okay as well. He said if we can wait for a day or two, he will ask Geo and Zazu to come and collect us using one of their ships from Autozam. He directed me to a clearing near a forest a little way up the coast, so we don't upset the people in Aueria by getting into a crazy spaceship."

"You didn't tell them that I am ill, did you, Hikaru-san?" Fuu asked, hoping that nobody back at the castle was worrying about her.

Hikaru shook her head, "No, but I did tell Lantis about your awesome lifesaving magic, and he was very impressed."

Fuu smiled to them both and sat up slowly. Her single-size bed was positioned against the wall, and she pulled the pillow up behind her back so she could sit comfortably against it. "I think I should be okay to make that trip by the time we need to, Hikaru-san. I think I just need a particularly good night's sleep and some good food."

"Food!" Umi exclaimed, "Food, Hikaru, we need to get back to the kitchen!"

"See you later then, Fuu-chan!" Hikaru waved, being pulled out of the room by Umi, "We'll bring you some of our concoction soon!"

Fuu, cheered by the sight of her two friends, sighed to herself contentedly and reached for her bag at the side of the bed where Laurana had placed it within her reach. She was sure she had something to read in here, or at least a notebook she could write her thoughts in.

Of course, she thought as she pulled out a small book, in here was a pocket-sized world atlas and fact book. She had promised to show Ferio and Clef this when she could find the time, so she had picked one up in a book sale because it was small and convenient to carry, unlike the hefty atlases they had studied during geography and geology lessons at school.

This one had a small map of Tokyo’s Metro system in the back of it, as well as an obligatory map of the London Underground - Fuu found this quite convenient too, as she was sure her parents were probably going to take her and Kuu to England next school holiday - and she looked over these geometric maps with interest. She wondered how New Cephiro would look with a modern infrastructure like this.

Flicking through to the back, she found a few empty "notes" pages, and with a smile pulled a plastic mechanical pencil from her bag as well. She had studied Ferio's 'Legendary Magic Knights" book several times with interest, and she was fairly sure she knew enough about New Cephiro's geography to make a world map of it.

Meanwhile, Hikaru and Umi were making a most excellent mess in the kitchen, although the end results would turn out to be quite tasty - despite Umi's lack of much experience with non-sweet meals, and their inability to read any of the cookery books in the kitchen.

"What exactly do you call this, then, Umi-san?" Fuu asked, receiving a plate from her friends, and they sat around the small table in the guest room.

Umi looked over it, and ventured, "Cephiran...uhh..."

"Hotchpotch!" Hikaru finished, "Because that's what it is."

Fuu giggled, and sampled some of the food, "Well, I guess it tastes like...a variety of root vegetables in some kind of soured cream sauce..." She saw Umi's disappointed face and waved her fork - or whatever the equivalent Cephiran implement was, "It tastes really good, though, Umi-san, I didn't mean anything negative by the comment."

"We'll have to make some desserts tonight, too, Umi-chan!" Hikaru said, looking sincerely pleased by the food, "This is really delicious considering we didn't know what we were cooking with."

"Don't you think it would be hard to find things to cook cakes with?" Umi asked, "Especially when the milk here tastes like crème fraiche."

"You didn't consider that the milk might be off, did you, Umi-san?"

"Well...I did consider that, but I figured that out-of-date milk would have a strange consistency, and lumps in it."

Umi and Hikaru were pleased to hear that Laurana and Alhana also enjoyed their meal, and that they had plenty of food left over for other guests. Laurana had brought with her the potion she had earlier promised Fuu - a Cephiran traditional remedy for fatigue. Fuu waited politely until Hikaru and Umi left for the night before she drank it.

"You are very good with medicines, Laurana-san. Didn't you ever consider becoming a pharmacist?" Fuu was met with a blank look from her carer, "I see, would you call it an apothecary?"

"Oh, I see!" Laurana said, clapping her hands together, "Yes, I did study for a while, but I became pregnant quite young, and then I lost rather a lot of faith in the business when I lost the baby and nobody could help me."

Fuu was taken aback; could any of this have been Ferio's doing? Laurana was regarding her with concern, and she was conscious that she should at least say something sympathetic about the miscarriage, "I'm sorry to have brought that up, Laurana-san...did the baby's father know?"

She shook her head, "He didn't even know I was pregnant, actually. I was rather taken with him, because he was so handsome and so flirtatious, but so were many other girls," Laurana looked at Fuu's face, "Your friends told you about him, didn't they?"

Fuu avoided Laurana's gaze, "Yes, they did. I hope you will forgive me, but I do not really wish to hear anything about it, because we are engaged to be married."


	7. Chapter 7

"How are you feeling today, Fuu-chan?" Hikaru's chirpy voice penetrated the last seconds of Fuu's deep and dreamless sleep.

Fuu groaned as Umi threw the shutters open and light flooded the room, "Oh, I think I feel a lot better today, Hikaru-san, thank you. Umi-san, the sunlight is really quite bright, would you mind possibly closing one of the shutters?"

Umi looked quite sheepish and then closed the shutters again, "I am sorry, Fuu. We just wondered, there is a public bath at the back of the inn, would you like to go there with us and freshen up? Alhana is lending us some towels and stuff so we can go in there, as long as we promise to do our own laundry this afternoon."

"That sounds lovely," Fuu said, "I think I even feel like I can manage the stairs today."

The girls made their way down, slowly for Fuu, to the back of the inn. After a short walk down a nicely maintained garden, they found a walled spring with a divider down the middle - obviously for separating the male and female guests.

"It's a shame it's not hot!" Umi gasped at the cold as she poked one toe into the water.

"I'm sure I can sort that out, Umi-chan." Hikaru said, "I am the Magic Knight of Fire, after all."

Hikaru, ever the daredevil, jumped into the cool water and laughed from the temperature shock, pushing her palms below the surface and concentrating her power into them. Umi and Fuu watched with amazement as the water began to steam a little in the fresh spring air, and they happily jumped in after her.

"You guys have proved to be pretty amazing over the past two days," Umi said, sighing in contentment as she slid lower and lower into the now-hot spring, "I haven't used my magic at all."

"I don't know, Umi-chan, you are pretty good with cooking," said Hikaru, very rosy-cheeked from her body suffering the change in the cold water to hot.

"I agree, Umi-san," said Fuu, doing the same as her blue-haired friend, "My, I think this might cure me completely. Do you know when our allies from Autozam might come to pick us up, Hikaru-san?"

Hikaru shook her head, and her long red hair splayed out further in the water, free from its usual tight braid, "I'll communicate with Lantis again after we're done in here, but I think we will be staying another night. They have to get authorisation from Eagle's father to take the ship out for this kind of thing, after all."

The girls spent several hours soaking in the hot spring, later joined by Alhana and Laurana, who were delighted by the gifts these girls kept bringing to their business. The five of them spent their time in there speaking of boys, clothes and hair - something that even the girls of New Cephiro seemed to be interested in. Fuu remained quite quiet throughout this, although Laurana seemed to be keeping quiet about her time with Ferio by talking plenty about her other encounters.

Later on, Alhana showed Umi and Fuu some cookery techniques to show off at New Cephiro Castle, while Hikaru and Laurana took care of the laundry as they'd first promised - the chores seemed to be reduced since the treat of the hot water - and nobody seemed to mention the whole Ferio thing ever again during their stay.

That night, Umi and Hikaru made up beds on the floor in the room allocated to Fuu, as tonight Fuu was fully healthy again and they could stay up until ridiculous-o-clock in the morning as they normally did in their sleepovers back on earth, talking quietly and giggling amongst themselves. Most often, Fuu was blushing as the other two teased her about Ferio, but now Umi was quite open to taunting about her relationship with Ascot.

“Fuu, weren't you trying to ask me something this morning about Clef?” Umi asked, brushing off a joke from Hikaru.

Fuu looked sheepish, “Yes, I was just wondering how he felt about you being with Ascot.”

Umi blinked a few times in surprise, eyes wide, “Why do you say that?”

“Yeah, wasn't there something going on between you two when we arrived in Cephiro the second time? Before we abolished the Pillar System.” Hikaru added, agreeing with Fuu.

The Magic Knight of Water paled, and almost seemed to freeze for a few moments. She finally moved and tipped her head forward, letting her hair fall over her face, “I...I don't know. I never got any firm signals from Clef, you know? I thought he was being nice to me because I saved his country.”

“Umi-chan,” Hikaru said softly, reaching out to rest her hand on Umi's upper arm comfortingly, “we're sorry, we didn't mean to bring this up.”

Fuu sat silent on the bed, a sympathetic look on her face, unable to think of anything to say.

“No, it needs addressing,” Umi said, then she looked at her two friends, her face flushed and her eyes red and tearful, “I thought I would be with Clef, but he never returned any of the hints I gave him. Ascot was somehow so much easier to talk to and be around, and he's a lovely guy, so I thought it made sense to call him my boyfriend.”

“Do you love him, Umi-chan? Because I love Lantis.”

Fuu smiled, “You love everyone, Hikaru-san. It's not a bad thing, but I don't think it helps Umi-san very much right now.”

Hikaru sighed, and turned back to Umi.

“I don't know if I love Ascot, but I definitely like him a lot,” Umi said, focusing on nothing in particular, and nodding as if she were trying to convince herself, “I think it would work out.”

“It's not what you ultimately want, is it, Umi-san?” Fuu asked.

Umi looked up at Fuu, the one Magic Knight who had never had any doubt in who she might end up with in Cephiro. She never had any kind of confusing signals from more than one guy, “It's easier for you, Fuu. You never had to choose between two people.”

Fuu bit her tongue, and nodded as if she had accepted the statement, “You're avoiding the question, Umi-san. You have to figure it out before someone gets hurt. You should speak to Clef, but you should also be fair to Ascot.”

Hikaru looked from Fuu to Umi, and then said, “I'm sorry, Umi-chan, but Fuu-chan is right. Everyone deserves to be happy, even if the path to that happiness involves some disappointment.”

“Can't I have both of them?” Umi cried, burying her head in her knees.

There was a long pause, and Hikaru said, “Well, that's probably not unheard of in Cephiro.”

Normally the three of them would laugh over something taboo like that, but Hikaru had brought the conversation to a close with something nobody could follow.

Fuu sincerely hoped that Ferio wasn't worrying about her, though she did wonder if he would know that she was in the same village as Laurana. Of course he couldn't know for sure that they had returned to the site of their original village, but he must have some sort of fear in the back of his mind - surely Lantis would share this piece of information with him. Aueria by the Sea was a well known landmark, even if he didn't know Ferio had grown up here.

Hikaru had indeed spoken to Lantis, and the girls knew that they needed to leave as early in the morning as possible in order to meet up with Geo and Zazu in the NSX. It was several miles to the agreed meeting place, and they didn't want to have to rush. Besides, they didn't really know the terrain very well, and there was always the chance that some monsters remained, or at least the odd unfriendly native creature.

"At least we can call on our magic," Umi comforted them as they got ready the next morning - another dip in the spring with their hosts was in order - and then she sighed, "It's just a little worrying that we don't have our armour or indeed our swords contained within it, unless we specifically ask Clef for it."

"Let's just only worry about that if the need arises, Umi-san," Fuu suggested, opening her tiny atlas to the back pages, "Do you think this map I put together will be useful to us? I know it's not exactly right, but it should help us."

"Is that what you can see from the castle?" Laurana asked, seeing the page open as she entered the room to collect the last of the Magic Knights' bedlinen for washing, "We don't really know what New Cephiro looks like in our little secluded village. Just this southern peninsula."

Fuu nodded to her with a smile and presented her with the book, "I was going to give this to Prince Ferio and Master Mage Clef, but it's not a big deal for me to get another one back at home, if you would like it as a token of our appreciation. It contains extensive maps of our world, as well. I'm sorry that you won't be able to read the writing, though."

So much for the map helping them out, thought Fuu, but at least she was giving Laurana something interesting, unique and personal.

"Are you sure, Miss Fuu? You don't need it, and you...you really want to give something to me, after what I've told you?"

Fuu tipped forwards in a polite Japanese bow, "Laurana-san, I am indebted to you for healing me so quickly and providing shelter and food for myself and my companions. What happened in the past is gone now and it can't be changed, and I won't hold it against you. Especially when it is a past as sad as the one you described."

Amused, Laurana mimicked Fuu's polite curtsey and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Miss Fuu. I hope you will grace our humble village and the Aueria Inn with your presence again even once you are Princess Fuu."

Hikaru, Umi and Fuu could do nothing but smile as they left the Aueria Inn, waved off by Alhana and Laurana and the rest of the residents of Aueria by the Sea. They had been filled with dread at the beginning of this trip to New Cephiro, but were genuinely glad and quite warmed by their experience with the friendly Cephiran people - just as they had witnessed in their previous visits.

"Lantis said to walk towards the forest," said Hikaru, "The fields are pretty flat and open here, so we should be able to see it after a kilometre or so walking north, I suppose."

"We're speaking in kilometres?" Umi asked, incredulous, "Just what kind of time are we likely to get picked up by Geo and Zazu, Hikaru-chan?"

Hikaru shrugged, "I'm not really sure, but they said they knew what they were doing, so I don't think we should complain when we are getting rescued in a spaceship for free!" She smiled to her friend, raising an eyebrow, "You have become high-maintenance again, living in the castle, Umi-chan! Remember the first couple of times we were here, you learned not to be so afraid of dirt and hard labour?"

Umi pretended to be quite offended, "Well really, Hikaru, I don't think a lady like myself, dating a court summoner, should have to expect anything less than luxury nowadays. And really, we can't expect the future Princess of New Cephiro to have to walk kilometres on end! She should be treated like a delicate flower."

"You're so silly, Umi-chan," Hikaru giggled.

The girls walked for another two hours, stopping for a little while along the way to take drinks and admire the scenery; they were on a fairly narrow piece of land at the moment, with straggly mountains on one side - Clef had called it the Compass range, Fuu recalled - and the sea stretching out on the other side. This was the opposite sea-facing side of the peninsula to the one they had arrived on.

"Is this where we're meant to be?" Hikaru wondered aloud, looking to her right as she sat between Umi and Fuu. The forest Lantis had mentioned was coming up soon on their path, and the three of them started to think they could hear a distant roar of engines. Hikaru suddenly stood, pointed her finger in the air and launched another Arrow of Fire into the sky. The engine sounds grew louder, and slowly, slowly, over the next couple of minutes, the girls began to be able to make out the strange shape of the NSX.

The spaceship was something of a work of art, with its rarely used main weapon, the Laguna cannon, seemingly held on to the ship by an array of strong wires, making the lower half of the ship look rather like a strangely constructed harp. The girls had theorised during their more tired moments that the cannon might collect energy from those wire strings, or perhaps it was just ornamental.

"Hikaru, is that you?" came an excitable voice, seemingly channelled straight into Hikaru's mind.

She grinned widely, much to the surprise of her two companions, and shouted back at the spaceship - she had not quite got the hang of telepathy - "Yes, Zazu, it's us, the Magic Knights!"

The ship came in lower and lower over the mountains, and Umi and Fuu wondered if they should start running for cover, as nobody was quite sure where the NSX would land, or indeed how it would manage to land at all. Aerodynamic it definitely was, but not particularly designed for parking anywhere other than its specially designed hangar in Autozam.

As it transpired, Geo had decided to hold the NSX in a static hovering position just metres from the ground, and Zazu emerged from some kind of maintenance hatch on the side of the ship on a small platform. He waved them over and helped the girls climb up onto it with him, before sending some kind of telepathic message back to Geo, who pulled the platform back up into the ship and started to make his slow ascent back up into the sky.

"Course set for New Cephiro Castle," Geo said proudly, as if this was the greatest mission he had ever taken part in. He noticed Umi and Fuu looking around in amazement while Hikaru sat talking casually with Zazu, "Of course, you girls haven't been inside any of our fleet before, have you?"

"It's like..." Umi started, looking around in wonder.

"I think it's like Mobile Battleship Nadesico," said Fuu, earning a laugh from Hikaru and a blank look from Umi, "It's a sci-fi comedy anime about a large spaceship that carried mecha pilots, Umi-san."

Umi sighed and looked amused, "I guess you two are much geekier than I am."

"Speak for yourself, Umi-chan, I've only watched it because I have three older brothers. Fuu-chan is the one that spends her spare time playing RPGs and writing computer programs."

"Thank you for your support," Fuu said, laughing. After looking over Geo's shoulder at the various electrical instruments comprising the large dashboard of the NSX, she sat down next to Hikaru. Umi soon joined them for the rest of the journey to New Cephiro Castle - although, the journey seemed to last just ten minutes or thereabouts. It could have been faster, but Geo was careful to stick to a self-imposed speed restriction over New Cephiro in order to not distress the residents.

The girls hugged each other and then Zazu - much to his delight - when the castle came into view. By this time of the day, the sun was just beginning to set, and the sea off the coast behind the large island of central northern New Cephiro was glittering in the warm sunlight.

"Ahh, our world is so beautiful!" Hikaru said with glee as the three of them rushed to a window to view it.

"'Our' world?" asked Geo, beginning to pull the NSX up to the portal at the front of New Cephiro Castle, "This isn't your world, Magic Knights."

"One day, it will be," Fuu said, with such confidence and authority that even she believed her own voice. The other passengers looked at her in surprise, but Umi and Hikaru couldn't disagree with her at all. As a result of this revelation, the last few minutes of the docking procedure was held in silence.

Clef had apparently seen them approaching, because the Master Mage and several of his companions had come to the front portal of the castle in order to see the Magic Knights off the visiting nose of the Autozam ship. Geo powered down the engines and released a metal staircase down from the deck they were on, down which Zazu escorted them to the floor of the castle.

Surprisingly, Umi was the first to be swept off her feet by a normally-shy Ascot, and held tighter than she had ever been before, "I thought you weren't coming back, Umi, after we only decided to be together on your last visit."

Umi giggled, but also felt like she could cry, and wrapped her arms around Ascot's neck. For now, she was purposely avoiding Clef's gaze. "You're so silly, Ascot. We saved Cephiro twice, remember? Something like this can't kill us."

Hikaru and Lantis were stood together, less publicly affectionate, perhaps because they had been happily communicating for much of the time the girls were stranded in Aueria. Lantis had a smile on his face, however, and he sent a smile and a nod in the direction of Zazu and Geo.

"Where is Ferio?" Fuu asked, worried by his conspicuous absence.

Her question was soon answered by the sound of boots hitting the marble floors of the castle corridors from some distance. The owner was running, as the sounds were fairly close together and were increasing in volume. Suddenly, the green-haired Prince of New Cephiro emerged from the nearest corridor, sweeping his fiancée off her feet and skidding to a halt mere metres from the nose of the NSX.

"Fuu," Ferio said breathlessly, setting her down so he could hold her close, "I was so worried about you."

"I'm okay," Fuu whispered, a smile plastered on her face; she was either going to bring this up straight away or not at all, "A friend of yours called Laurana nursed me back to health in Aueria."

Ferio tensed, and pulled away to look down at her face with one eyebrow raised, "That's cold, Fuu."

Luckily for the two of them, the other people in the atrium were slowly dispersing; Fuu acknowledged Hikaru saying something about meeting up the next morning for breakfast, and then everyone was gone. Even Geo and Zazu had retreated back into their warship with promises of returning in the morning - in a smaller vehicle - to see Eagle.

"Why did you bring up a girl's name?" Ferio asked as they made an awkward stroll back to his chambers, "Right when I was so happy to see you?"

"I wanted to see what your reaction was," said Fuu, shrugging, "And what do you mean 'a girl'? You don't remember her? Laurana. The innkeeper's daughter."

He looked sheepish and guessed, "She was perhaps the girl training to be an apothecary? It was a few years ago now."

"The girl you got pregnant, Ferio."

Ferio stopped in his tracks, and Fuu turned to look at him when she heard his footsteps cease. She displayed one of her best indifferent facial expressions as he stood looking the most surprised he ever had.

"Why are you telling me this, Fuu?"

"Because Laurana is a lovely girl, and she doesn't deserve anything that happened to her," Fuu heaved a heavy sigh and looked at the floor, "She didn't have a full pregnancy, she lost the baby sometime early. So I guess we don't actually have any illegitimate children to worry about."

The prince was completely lost for words, still unsure of why Fuu was doing this to him, and the matter-of-factness with which she was dealing with the news. He supposed he had first fallen in love with this girl for her intellect and slightly cold common sense. What had he first called her? Tricky. That was it.

"I'm telling you because I know, and I wouldn't be able to keep it from you forever," Fuu explained more softly, touching his arm in comfort and glad that he didn't snatch it away, "If I didn't do it now, I would be holding on to it forever, and it would be eating away at me."

Ferio exhaled deeply, having trouble processing this information as reality still, "We should talk about this tomorrow, Fuu. Can I please show you what I've done while I was waiting for your return? It's why I was late."

Fuu nodded and linked her arm through Ferio's, giving it a reassuring squeeze, "Is it a nice surprise?"

"I think so," said Ferio, opening the door to his lounge.

When Fuu first looked in, she was met with pitch blackness. However, she realised that Ferio was slowly willing those light-producing glass spheres on, and there seemed to be a new, small table in the middle of the room, placed in front of the sofa. This new table was holding two plates under what seemed to be painted terracotta food insulators. Fuu suddenly felt very bad about everything she told Ferio since she had returned to the castle, and she turned to look at him in almost shame.

"Don't apologise, Fuu, I have already said we'll talk about her tomorrow. Let's just enjoy this evening together."

•••

"Eagle!" Hikaru called, sneaking less than carefully into the chamber where her beloved friend slept eternally, "Eagle, I'm sorry I haven't come to see you for a long time. I thought I should, because I think the portal is starting to fail."

"Maybe it is because you are making a choice about it in your heart," Eagle suggested, his voice coming to Hikaru telepathically. She looked surprised, and he continued after a small mental laugh, "It is very nice to see you, Hikaru-chan. Thank you for coming to see me."

"We're making a choice?" Hikaru asked, still concentrating on the first words he had spoken, "You mean, we're deciding to live in Cephiro?"

"I feel like you are struggling between yourselves, you three girls from another world, struggling to decide whether you wish to stay on your Earth, or come to live with your loved ones in New Cephiro. The portal is failing because you all feel you need to make a decision sooner rather than later. You made New Cephiro a place where everyone's hearts together cause consequences, Hikaru-chan. You have to be careful what your hearts want, and how strongly they want it."

Hikaru was still and silent for a few minutes, furrowing her eyebrows and thinking hard about this. Then she nodded, and reached over to rest her hand on Eagle's, "Thank you, Eagle. That makes a lot of sense. I should speak to Umi-chan and Fuu-chan about it," she noticed that Eagle's skin wasn't quite as pale as it used to be, and that he might be putting even the tiniest bit of weight back on, "Are you getting a lot better, Eagle? You seem to be looking healthier."

She felt him laugh again, and he said, "Yes, Hikaru-chan, thanks to yourself and everyone in New Cephiro, I am getting a lot better at the moment. Maybe it is because you are all loved up, hmm?"

Hikaru went red, knowing exactly what Eagle was thinking, "Well, Fuu-chan and Prince Ferio have just got engaged properly, and-"

"Engaged, Hikaru-chan? What is this 'engaged' thing you speak of? Isn't it some kind of Earth tradition?"

She nodded, and then added, "Well, Ferio- Prince Ferio, really wanted to do something like this for Fuu-chan, because he wanted it to be really special and original, and...apparently play an elaborate practical joke on Ascot while he's at it."

Eagle laughed again, and moved on, "Yes, young Ascot has found himself a lovely young lady too, hasn't he? Umi. She must be a handful for him, but they say that opposites attract."

"Do you have something like marriage in Autozam, Eagle? Where two people get together for the rest of their lives, and then they might have children, and live together, and share their money and possessions?"

She imagined him nodding, "Yes, although in Autozam we call it geedzeco. It is a legal standing, nothing more, and certainly not nearly as romantic as what Prince Ferio is proposing to Fuu."

Hikaru mused about this for a moment, and then sat watching Eagle in silence rather than responding. She couldn't imagine a world where there wasn't so much romance in everything.

...did Eagle just move slightly?

"Lantis! Lantis! Where are you?" Hikaru called, checking around in that courtyard again – Lantis's favourite spot in the castle, "Lantis, I think Eagle is starting to move! This is very important!"

"Above your head, Hikaru," Lantis said softly in his deep voice, something that would normally make Hikaru go slightly weak at the knees – much like Ferio's effect on Fuu – but this time she had more important things on her mind.

"Lantis, come with me!" Hikaru demanded, holding one of her tiny hands out, upwards towards Lantis in the tree, "Let's go and see if Eagle is waking up!"

Lantis leapt down with rather more purpose than he'd had before, and he picked up his small girlfriend and started to sprint down the corridors of the palace towards the room where Eagle was kept.

In fact, upon Lantis's arrival with Hikaru, Eagle appeared to be opening his eyes very slightly; perhaps he was doing this so slowly to guard against the bright lights of the room he was in. Upon seeing two blurred figures with black and red hair, he smiled slightly and said – with his mouth, this time, not through telepathy, "It's good to see you."

"Geo and Zazu will be very pleased with their visit later this morning, no doubt," said Lantis, bearing the biggest and most genuine smile displayed on his face in years. Hikaru giggled at this thought and mentioned it to him. Lantis looked bewildered, and Eagle laughed quietly.

"So, the beautiful land of Cephiro has healed me," Eagle mused, looking up at the ceiling. At some point in the recent past, Clef had conjured some kind of magic mirror so that Eagle could see outside the castle at whatever was going on outside the window at Ferio's end of the corridor - it was the best view of Cephiro for miles around, after all.

"New Cephiro, Eagle, we did tell you," Hikaru corrected, looking up at Eagle's mirror, "Our country is so beautiful, I'm hardly surprised that it has helped you so much, so soon."

Eagle raised his eyebrows and looked a little sad, "Hikaru, please be careful how you speak about Cephiro-- _New Cephiro_. You are speaking as if you have decided to stay here, and I'm sure you wish to return home at least a few more times before making that kind of commitment."

Hikaru looked surprised and covered her hand with her mouth in realisation. This was exactly what Fuu had said earlier without thinking.

"What's going on, Hikaru, Eagle?" Lantis asked, "Are you thinking of staying here? You need to be more careful, like Eagle says, before you get permanently stuck here against your better judgement."


	8. Chapter 8

Umi was having the time of her life; despite being terrified of falling through the sky just two days ago, she had happily accepted Ascot's proposal of viewing Cephiro from the sky on the back of one of his flight-capable spirit beast friends. It was a distraction from having to decide what to do about Ascot and Clef, anyway.

"It's so beautiful out here, Ascot!" Umi shouted against the rushing wind, looking down upon mountain ranges, villages, lakes and forests, "I even think I can see the Weirdo Fountain of Eterna from here!"

At this moment, Fuu woke up by herself in the room she normally shared with Hikaru and Umi. Most people would wonder about three teenage girls sharing a large bed, but it just felt rather natural to them now, like some kind of comfort zone while they were in New Cephiro. They had joked with each other that they would probably continue to do this if they went to live in Cephiro permanently, but there was a lot of truth behind the joking: three girls that shared a bond such as theirs were not likely to break the tradition so quickly.

She'd had a late night, as she and Ferio had eaten slowly and then talked about the latest ordeal with the portal - excluding any information about Laurana - and then she had said she wanted to stay with Hikaru and Umi, so he had walked her sadly back to that room and left her there with a kiss goodnight. Fuu had changed as quietly as possible, and climbed into bed next to Hikaru, who always slept in the middle. She didn't stir, but Umi raised her head and gave Fuu a smile and a wave in the darkness, and the two of them had fallen asleep quite contentedly in their company.

"Are you okay, Umi?" Ascot asked, noticing that Umi had become quite solemn as his friend the spirit beast slowed down the flying, and began to glide along the back of a stretch of mountains.

Umi sighed and leaned back to rest against her new boyfriend's chest, "I just worry about Fuu, that's all. She learned something about Ferio when we were in that village, and I think she might have confronted him about it last night when we got off the NSX."

"Was Prince Ferio married before, Umi?" Ascot asked nervously.

"Something like that," Umi sighed, trying to hide her smile, "But I don't think a child came out of it."

Ascot nodded sagely and tentatively put an arm around her, finding that she did not resist. He smiled to himself. He and Umi didn't have any previous marriages to worry about, and he wouldn't ask her to marry him until she was ready. Umi could pretty much read these thoughts and was almost shaking with silent laughter, but she couldn't let him think that.

"I suppose they will be arranging their marriage soon," Umi said, not even thinking about the words she was using.

"I think someone like Prince Ferio would be thinking about marriage all the time. He's just that kind of guy."

"This marriage will be special, though!" said Umi, "A royal marriage."

Ascot was starting to become more and more uncomfortable, "Do people really talk this much and so freely about marriage on Earth, Umi?"

"Yes, it's a very big thing back on Earth," said Umi, trying her hardest to keep a straight face, "We have big celebrations with our families and friends, and we have photographers, and post-wedding parties, and a huge cake to celebrate."

She couldn't bring herself to look at Ascot's face, as she imagined he was having a hard time processing all this information with the context he interpreted it in.

"Hmmm...does that look familiar to you, Umi?" Ascot said, just as shakily as before, pointing downwards and ahead of them.

Umi looked down at a chevron-shaped range of mountains, and as she looked away she saw a near-circular forest, and a small village by the see beyond that, "Ah! It's Aueria by the Sea, of course!" She looked up into the sky, expecting to see some evidence of the portal, but all she saw was a flashing light meant to ward off aircraft.

Aircraft?

"Wait!" Umi shouted, pointing upwards at the flashing red light, "Ascot, what is that? It looks like a light that we have on tall buildings in Tokyo that deter aircraft."

"I haven't ever seen that before," Ascot said, glad that the previous conversation was over, "Isn't that near to where you would have fallen through the portal?"

Umi nodded, and then squinted hard at the light, "It couldn't possibly be...something from our world merging into New Cephiro? Ascot, can you take us closer to it?"

"The air is too thin up there, Umi, I don't want to endanger any of us," Ascot explained, shaking his head, "I think we should just go back to the castle and ask Master Mage Clef and the others about it."

Umi bit her lip, thinking hard while Ascot and his friend turned them round and they set off back for the castle; were they going to have to make their decision so soon? It was almost looking like they'd need to seal themselves off from each other entirely at this rate.

They called a meeting in the throne room, and everybody available stood round Clef's projection of the problem in the centre of the room. The council numbered many; Clef, the Magic Knights, Ferio, Lantis, Ascot, Presea, Caldina and Lafarga. They all stared with interest at the flashing light in the sky. Fuu was the first to speak, as suddenly she realised just what this alien object could be.

"The Tokyo Tower has aircraft-deterrent lights on it," Fuu said, "Doesn't that make the most sense for something to be protruding through into New Cephiro? If it would make any sense at all, of course."

Umi agreed, "I guess that would be a good explanation, like you said, even if it is a strange thing to be happening."

"Umi-chan, we are currently sat in a fantasy world that nobody else knows about, pondering why a Japanese landmark is poking into the sky. Logic stopped applying to our lives over a year ago."

"Have you decided where you wish to spend the rest of your lives, though, Magic Knights?" Clef asked, beginning to display a distinct lack of patience every time the girls went off on a tangent like this, "I'm not really sure New Cephiro knows what you want either. You are some of the strongest hearts in this land, and it's very likely that you're causing this shift in inter-dimensional space."

"We don't know at all, Master Mage Clef," Fuu said with utmost honesty, "We are torn. We have all the people we love here in New Cephiro, but we also have our families back in Tokyo, and we've been trying so hard to get into the same senior high school together. We never meant to make this decision at all for another three Earth years."

"You're becoming too attached," Clef declared upon hearing Fuu's explanation, "And yet your ties to people back on Earth have started to pull part of your world towards ours. You need to think about this carefully, before you cause terrible trouble for both our worlds," he noticed that he was putting the girls under a lot of duress, and added, "It will be a difficult decision, perhaps one of the hardest tasks you have undertaken in relation to Cephiro, but look at what you have achieved before and the friends and allies you have made, and I'm sure you'll be able to make the best decision together."

"Well," said Umi, much to Ascot's horror and the Master Mage's chagrin, "Don't we have a wedding to organise before everything hits the fan?"

Fuu looked uncomfortable, and she looked at the irritated Clef, and then at a blank-faced Hikaru, before looking at a very determined Umi. Ferio couldn't help but crack a smile at the expression on Ascot's face, although Lantis managed somehow to retain his stoic silence with little more than a twitch at the corners of his mouth.

"Of course!" Caldina cried, happy to break the awkward mood, "Us girls will help y'all out. Ain't that right, Presea?"

Presea made a small attempt at a smile, not wishing to participate in detracting the conversation in front of Clef, "I will help if I am needed, Caldina, but I also need to concentrate on the matter at hand."

Fuu was appreciative of Presea's diplomatic answer, though Umi and Hikaru were already whispering plans to each other, and Ferio had taken her hand from behind her, and now gave it a reassuring squeeze. Fuu sighed. They hadn't seen each other since last night until now, and they still hadn't spoken properly about Laurana and the baby. It wasn't really a comfortable time at all to be talking about the marriage, no matter how amusing it was to tease Ascot about his interpretation.

"We should definitely be married before the chance of the portal closing up. We'll either be stuck together forever, or stuck apart forever," the Prince vocalised, much to Fuu's surprise. He wasn't sore over what she'd brought up the previous evening? Was he trying to maintain a certain amount of composure in front of the others? Or was he just going to pretend it hadn't happened?

Fuu felt as if time was standing still as she thought - and she definitely needed it to in order to process all her feelings on the matter. She felt something building up inside her, and she tightened her grip on Ferio's hand, her fingernails almost digging into the palm of her other hand. Suddenly, interrupting whatever petty argument was going on between Hikaru and Umi or Presea and Caldina, she exploded with, "No, I don't want to rush this!"

Everybody looked at her in shock. She had possibly been louder than she expected, judging by the expressions on the people around her. Slowly she looked up at Ferio, who was displaying the same confused and slightly hurt look he had yesterday when she'd greeted him with news about Laurana.

"It's not that I don't want to get married, I just want it to be really nice and special, and I would rather it wasn't under the pressure of worlds collapsing in on each other. Like you said, we'll either be stuck together forever, or stuck apart forever. If we're stuck together, then we'll get married. If we're stuck apart, then there's no point in being married at all," Fuu felt the anxiety setting in now she realised everything she'd said. She had to get out of the room, "Why am I sharing this with everyone? Please excuse me."

Fuu ran. She ran for the room she shared with Hikaru and Umi, and she opened the door to the walk-in closet and shut herself inside, finding one of those glass spheres on her way in to provide her with some light as she sat there and gathered her thoughts properly. She'd meant everything she said back there, but she felt very embarrassed for having said it in front of so many of her beloved Cephiran friends. What would they be thinking right now? Public speaking was never her forte.

"Fuu?" she heard Umi's slightly out of breath voice from the main bedroom door, "Fuu, are you in here?"

Hikaru's voice came next, "One of the lights is missing, Umi-chan, Fuu-chan must be hiding somewhere dark."

Of course, they quickly found Fuu inside that walk-in closet and gathered around her, enclosing her in one of their best friend hugs and letting her have the little cry she needed so much. Umi had made sure to lock their bedroom from the inside, and Hikaru had closed the closet for good measure.

"We won't make you do anything, Fuu-chan," Hikaru said, though she cringed when Fuu began to cry slightly more. She looked up at Umi; this wasn't really having the desired effect.

"People are always telling me, 'you don't have to do anything you don't want to, Fuu', but it always seems very pitying and accommodating of my hesitant character," Fuu articulated, removing her glasses and placing them carefully into the front pocket of the hoodie she had thrown on when the meeting was called, "Should I be doing the things people suggest and not just stubbornly holding back all the time?"

Umi shook her head vigorously in consolation, hugging Fuu tighter, "It's your wedding, Fuu. You're right, it should be special and this is not a very special situation to hold it in."

They sat in the cupboard, talking, for perhaps an hour. They heard various friends, loved ones and castle staff walking past the door, looking for them, calling for them, and asking if they were okay.

"We should go home soon," said Fuu, "And I don't think we should come back for a while."

Umi looked surprised, "I agree with going home soon, Fuu, but do you really want to stay away from Cephiro?"

Fuu nodded, and put her thoughts together carefully in words, "We don't know what's causing the problems with the portal or the merging. We don't know how many more times we can travel through without causing more of those problems. We've just got our confirmation for CLAMP School and there's no point letting that go to waste-"

"Is that it, Fuu-chan? Are you mostly worrying about wasting your education?" Hikaru asked, looking sad, "Don't you think, now we've finished mandated education, our lives in New Cephiro are a little more important? I know we always said we'd go to CLAMP School together and consider living in New Cephiro after our three years there, but those circumstances have almost definitely changed."

Fuu hugged her knees tighter and tighter, "I don't know what I want, Hikaru-san. I'm just not ready to make the decision yet."

"I think we've already made the decision, don't you?" Umi asked, "Fuu, you called New Cephiro 'our world' when we were on the NSX yesterday, and...Hikaru, didn't you say that you said something like that to Eagle this morning?"

Hikaru nodded forlornly, "I have accepted Cephiro as my home in my heart, I'm sure, but my heart also feels sad about leaving my brothers and Hikari."

"You could bring Hikari, I'm sure, Hikaru-san," Fuu said in a small moment of amusement at her friend.

"There!" Umi said, nudging Fuu, "You've made the decision as well, just talking like that!"

"We could stay here now and never go back," Hikaru said, "Although, I'm sure we'd want to go back for some things, but then we wouldn't want to upset our parents and siblings by just disappearing like that."

"Would they know we'd disappeared, though?" Fuu asked.

It was a good question. Although time had been slipping by minutes while the portal was failing, if it was closed forever, what would happen to Earth? Would Cephiro continue to exist on a totally different plane and Earth stand still? There were too many theories to get their heads round, and they almost couldn't bear the thought of their families and friends being left in that static world.

The girls gathered some paper and pens together from their belongings, and started to ponder over the theories and questions they wanted to ask and discuss with Clef, but they needed to get their heads straight before they pulled him into a discussion with them. And it would have to be a meeting with just Clef - the presence of any of their other friends or loved ones would be too much and might serve to sway their hearts more than they were already.

They found their stomachs were rumbling with hunger - lunchtime had long passed, and they wondered if they could sneak around to the kitchen without anyone familiar noticing them.

Clutching their piece of paper, Fuu followed Umi and Hikaru through the corridors quietly, Hikaru leading the way as she was the best navigator through the castle. Umi and Fuu had to wonder what she and Lantis did all the time, as it apparently mostly involved learning the palace's corridors and rooms by heart.

"Fuu," came a hushed voice from behind the corner, and Fuu found herself being tugged quietly away, a hand clamped over her mouth. She struggled a little, but whoever had hold of her was very strong, and she realised already that Umi hadn't seen or heard her disappear.

Of course, Ferio had chosen to find and capture his wife-to-be, in order to challenge her about her outburst and the reason she'd been hiding from him and everyone else for the past couple of hours. Fuu heaved another of her heavy sighs and relayed everything they had discussed inside the comfort of their closet - a detail that Ferio found quite funny - and how the girls were going to talk to Clef in order to decide what to do.

"You really are dedicated to your learnings, aren't you, Fuu?" Ferio asked, moving in close and kissing her forehead; Fuu felt about ready to melt, and any preferences she had for education started to disappear from her mind. Why did he have to do this to her? It made it very difficult for her to be at all serious or angry with him.

Feeling some kind of powerful, warm energy build up inside her, Fuu instinctively pushed Ferio further against the wall he was leaning on, and reached up to kiss him more passionately than she ever had before, gripping his tunic very tightly and putting everything she had into this kiss. Taken by surprise, Ferio stood, pinned, and wide-eyed as he let this young lady do as she wished to him.

"Maybe," said Fuu, pulling away breathless, "Maybe, before I disappear forever, we should..."

Ferio knew exactly what she meant - at least he hoped he did - and he put on a very straight face and shook his head, "No, Fuu. If you have any chance of disappearing forever, I do not want you to be with child when that happens. You'll either lose the baby, or we'll be separated forever, you'll be a teenage mother and I'll never see it. For a young woman so intent on getting a good education, that's a pretty strange thing to suggest."

The burning emotions in Fuu's face suddenly cooled and turned to tears again. She let go of Ferio's arm and clothes, threaded her arms around his waist and pushed her head into his chest. He could do nothing but wrap his arms around her and comfort her. Perhaps he'd been too harsh in his wording, but he meant everything that he'd tried to say.

The Magic Knights gathered that very evening in the throne room, very sobered and troubled, refusing to look at any of their Cephiran friends. They hadn't managed to have that conversation with Clef - Fuu had spent the rest of her day with Ferio, and Umi and Hikaru with Ascot and Lantis. It was uncomfortable to have meetings like this, where every trip might be their last, but at least they were making the most of them.

"This is the wrong observation deck," Fuu commented, opening her watery eyes on their return to Tokyo, "We were on the major deck before, now we're higher up on the minor one."

Upon noticing this, of course, they were challenged by some Tower staff, whom had suddenly spotted the girls as not having passed through the ticket checking for the upper deck. When they failed to explain their presence there, they were charged the extra addition to the fare anyway, which Umi paid out for - Hikaru and Fuu rarely carried any more money than they needed to, and promised to pay her back. The three of them left, saddened by the entire ordeal. It really had been the icing on the cake.

"Well, girls," said Umi, "I vote on a sleepover at my house, if you would like to pick anything up on the way there."

Fuu and Hikaru nodded; they were glad, because they'd be able to sleep together in comfort in Umi's large king-size bed, and this was just what they needed after a journey like that one.


	9. Chapter 9

Mrs Ryuuzaki checked in Umi's room the next morning to find the three of them still sound asleep together. She had to wonder, every time she met the other two, how her daughter had become such brilliant friends with them; she was consistently suspicious that something strange was going on, even though she was very glad that Umi had found some truly lovely and dependable friends. Despite coming from different social classes, the girls were a pleasure to host - so polite and courteous whenever they came to stay.

In fact, they slept late into the afternoon. Luckily for them, it was the last weekend before they started at their new school, and they wouldn't be in trouble for being late.

Fuu woke up first, in contrast to their previous night in Cephiro where she had woken up last. She wondered where she was for a moment, having spent her last several nights in different beds. Regrettably, none of those beds were Ferio's, and she placed a hand on her forehead to gather her thoughts better. She felt bad that she hadn't recently shared the bed with him, and...had she really suggested what she thought she might have suggested to him yesterday? How terrible of her. She'd had so many negative thoughts about that herself, it must have been a real spur of the moment proposition.

Careful to not wake the others up, she retrieved her glasses and then leaned over the side of the bed - with its high base and thick mattress - to pull another book out of her back. This was a school book; she'd borrowed Kuu's old books from her first year at CLAMP School to begin preparing herself for the new term.

"You're such a nerd, Fuu," Umi said in a hushed voice, minutes after she'd begun reading a mathematical theory book. Fuu looked over in surprise to see Umi looking like she'd had a really terrible night's sleep. She'd not seen her looking so worn recently.

"I'm simply pretending everything is okay, Umi-san," Fuu said, adjusting her glasses and becoming conscious that her own hair was probably in quite an awful state.

Umi smiled sadly, "I guess that's the best thing to do for a while, huh, Fuu? We didn't leave them any indication of when we'd be back. Maybe we could leave it for a month or more before we go back to see them."

A knock came at the door; obviously, Mrs Ryuuzaki had been listening to see if they'd wake up, and she had just heard Umi speaking. Hikaru stirred awake as Umi got up to check the door.

"Umi, darling, where have you been?" Mrs Ryuuzaki asked quietly, "You've been gone for two days. We thought you were at your friends' houses, but we were starting to worry when we couldn't get through to your phone and we called the police."

Umi's eyes widened. She heard Fuu fumble with her book in shock, and Hikaru mumbled something inaudible about it.

"I'm sorry Mom, our phones ran out of battery at Fuu's family's summer house. We wanted to get away for a couple of days to celebrate all three of us getting into CLAMP School successfully."

Her mother looked disbelieving, since she'd communicated with Fuu's and Hikaru's families, but accepted the excuse, "Well, be more careful next time, Umi. Make sure we know where you are. You're lucky that you weren't away long enough or alone, so the police wouldn't start investigating yet. I've called them off."

After a longer conversation about this matter, her mother left and Umi closed the door slowly, trying to gather her thoughts before turning to the other two girls, "We seriously have to make a decision or find a resolution soon."

Fuu rested her face in her hands, and Hikaru's head drooped to one side, both of them just as distressed as Umi.

"First things first," Fuu said, lifting her head, "Assuming your parents haven't done so already, Hikaru-san and I need to contact our families and let them know we're okay."

•••

Eagle was making progress, even within a matter of days in New Cephiro. With Lantis's help, he was able to sit up and even take a few baby steps away from the bed in the chamber he had been nursed in. It warmed him that so many people were coming to visit him, congratulate him on his progress, and generally send him well wishes, but he had something on his mind, and that thing was the portal.

"I feel like there is some new power inside me, Lantis," Eagle said one day as the two of them sat eating food together - Lantis had pulled in a chair from the next room so they could share their lunch - it was just a simple soup and drinks, but it was good progress for Eagle, "And I think I might be able to help the Magic Knights with their travel problems. I just don't know how, exactly. It's just a gut feeling, but it's a very strong one."

Lantis finished swallowing his mouthful thoughtfully, and said, "I had slightly hoped you would say something like that. After all, New Cephiro itself and the people living in it have been healing you. You must have some kind of bond to the land by now."

Eagle nodded far more vigorously than someone in his condition should, and he smiled, "Hikaru and her two friends have been an invaluable part of that help, too. I know they have the strongest hearts in the land. Credit to yourself where it's due too, my friend."

Lantis gave him a small smile, something that always cheered Eagle, and set down his porcelain and cutlery on a nearby side table, "Those girls have an important decision to make, Eagle, and I'm glad that you're here to be with all of us while that happens. I couldn't bear to live without you and Hikaru."

"You've really taken a shine to her, hmm?" Eagle asked with interest, and he laughed when Lantis raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Lantis, you know very well that I know exactly what is going on. I'm very happy for you both. Might you be getting engaged like Prince Ferio and Fuu?"

Lantis displayed amusement, and shook his head, "I don't know what Ferio is doing. I know they are besotted with each other and he's probably trying to be some revolutionary, trendy monarch for the new state of Cephiro, but I have to wonder how it's going to play out."

"And how long before Ascot figures out exactly what it is?" Eagle asked, barely able to hide his mirth, "I can't believe the two of you have let him believe this for so many months. What does he possibly think of Umi?"

"From what I can gather, Ascot is completely head over heels for her - and she is a very pretty girl - and he's probably trying to hide his disgust of the whole Earth race because of it."

The chat was very well-received for Lantis; it was just what he needed when he was so afraid that he might be losing Hikaru if something wasn't done about the portal or at least a decision made about it. Having his best friend back in the land of the living was one of the best things that possibly could have happened at this moment in time.

Lantis made sure Eagle was comfortable before he left to speak to Clef, and he wandered down the corridors looking for the Master Mage's study and living quarters. He took a slow walk; he wanted to have time to think before he got there.

"Commander Eagle wants to help, doesn't he?" Clef asked, taking the magic swordsman completely by surprise. Clef had apparently been on his way to see Eagle upon sensing this information in the air from somewhere.

Lantis, reeling, finally nodded, "He feels like he can do something, but he isn't sure entirely how he can help. He really wants to make everything better for our three young women from another world."

Clef looked up at the ceiling for a moment, something he often did while he was considering something of great importance, "I agree with what you said to him; that he must have some kind of link to our world since we put so much of it into trying to heal him. I would like to see what he can do, combining his understanding of our world with the technology they have at the disposal of the Autozam military force."

Eagle, relaxing on the guest bed he had slept on for so long, tuned in to every word of that conversation and nodded to himself, smiling, because he was able to pay something back to the country that had done what no amount of technological advancement had been able to do back home. He was beginning to feel fit and healthy again, and he'd need Lantis and Clef's help if he was going to help them fix this problem with the Cephiran-Earth portal.

It would take weeks of careful diet planning, nourishment and exercise before Eagle was even able to consider getting back into his FTO, despite that fact that he had been able to pilot it while gravely ill in the fight for New Cephiro. Zazu watched with Lantis from the control deck of the NSX as Eagle flew gracefully in New Cephiro airspace, Geo on standby in the GTO, just in case anything happened.

"Geo is really happy that Commander Eagle is back with us," Zazu said, looking just as cheerful himself, "He hasn't been the same since Eagle fell into the coma once coming back from the test to become the Pillar."

"You're also very happy, aren't you, Zazu?" Lantis asked, smiling down at the junior mechanic.

Zazu looked flustered, "Well, of course, he is a great leader, and--"

"He's your friend as much as he is Geo's, Zazu." Lantis interrupted, silencing the young man. Zazu was surprised; Lantis had never spoken to him with such familiarity before. Eagle's return to health was really having a positive effect on everybody.

"Eagle! Get back here!"

Zazu and Lantis ran over to the NSX dashboard as they heard Geo's distressed call to Eagle over the communications system.

"GTO, please report, what is the status?" Zazu asked with urgency.

"Eagle is going off towards the anomaly in the sky, Zazu, why didn't we inhibit the speed capacity of the FTO while we were repairing it? It only left him the capability to go off and do something stupid again!"

Eagle was climbing higher and higher; he had faked a radio problem when Geo had started shouting and disconnected it carefully using a small jolt of mental energy. He wasn't as powerful as he had once been, but it was enough to help him propel his beloved FTO towards the flashing point of the Tokyo Tower in the sky - and start pushing it.

Lantis watched calmly as Zazu zoomed in on the big console screen, and then allowed Geo back on board at his loud insistence. Charging out of the GTO and up onto the control deck, Geo started blasting the NSX towards Eagle and the landmark in the sky.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Geo cursed under his breath, "Doesn't this thing go any faster?"

"This is the best warship in the Autozam fleet, Lieutenant Commander, I'm afraid it doesn't," Zazu mumbled, addressing Geo by his proper military title in the panic.

Eagle concentrated all his energy and all of his will power - something he had learned from New Cephiro - into moving the FTO. He came into contact with the Tokyo Tower and he guided the FTO's hands towards it, getting a good hold on the rungs making up the construction of the Tower. Concentrating harder than ever before, he fired the boosters well and truly as hard as they would go, willing this visitor from Earth away.

"Whoa!" Zazu shouted, watching Eagle on the screen, "Geo, Lantis, the thing is moving out of the sky!"

Geo stood transfixed by Eagle's actions on-screen, and he ground his teeth before making a split-second decision, "Ensign Zazu, please prepare the GTO for launch once more. I'm going to go out there and help him."

Zazu gave him a salute, directed Lantis into the copilot's chair and prepared Geo's mecha for launch. Lantis could do little but watch; he was skilled with the Autozam mechas, but he had never touched the controls of such a large warship before.

The two of them watched Geo fly ahead of them, moving at least twice as fast as the NSX, and he approached Eagle with caution; as the radio link had been lost, he had to communicate entirely with mecha body language.

Eagle seemed to understand his friend's motives, however, and after pausing briefly to see what Geo had come to do, he carried on pushing on the Tower. Eagle's mecha, the FTO, had been built for speed rather than brute force, something that Geo's GTO had in buckets.

Geo struggled to get a grip on the Tower at first, due to the less delicate nature of his mecha, but together they got a firm hold on the metal frame and both fired their boosters as hard as they could. Geo was hoping so hard that he believed Eagle could hear him - they had to make sure they let go if it started to move. They didn't know if it was really Earth on the other side of that portal, or if it was something that would mean they'd be lost in an alternative dimension for the rest of time. It wasn't exactly a regular occurrence, and they needed to be very careful with how they went about it.

Due to their close proximity, Geo was now able to send mental messages to Eagle, "I hope you know what you're doing, Commander."

Eagle semi-accidentally transmitted back a nervous laugh, and said, "I think that what I'm doing is right, but I don't know if it's safe."

"Let go if it's going to disappear, Commander Eagle."

"Of course, Lieutenant Commander Geo."

Eagle and Geo put all their mental energy together once more in order to give the anomaly once last push. They both felt by proxy the Tower start to slip, and both instinctively let go at the same time. With a resounding crashing noise echoing from far away, the thing in the sky was gone.

"What could that possibly have been?" Geo asked as they hovered in that one spot in the sky, "Where did that come from, do you know?"

"It's the landmark in the Magic Knights' home country of Japan, that lets them come through to New Cephiro. That's why I thought it was so closely related to the portal being such a problem," Eagle animatedly turned his FTO to face Geo's mecha, "I couldn't have done it without you, Geo. Thank you."

The GTO saluted in time with Geo within the cockpit, "It's a pleasure to serve under you again, Commander."

•••

"Umi-chan, Fuu-chan, come and look at the TV!" Hikaru called from Umi's pristine western-style living room.

Umi's parents had gone out to do their weekly shopping, leaving the girls to make their own dinners and clean themselves up after their long weekend. Hikaru had been sat watching the local news for some time as her two friends prepared the food, but now they came rushing to the door, spurred by the urgency in Hikaru's voice.

The news report featured the Tokyo Tower, although it looked quite worse for wear. The very top of the Tower, far above the observation decks, seemed to have been bent and slightly crushed. The aircraft deterrent light was no longer flashing, and there were crowds of people standing around, complaining loudly in high numbers of a very localised earthquake that had happened as the Tower had shifted - almost drowning out the news reporter who was trying to explain the same thing.

"Isn't that the part that was stuck into New Cephiro's sky?" Umi asked, still holding on to her tongs from the deep frying she and Fuu were doing, "Do you think someone might have done something to it?"

"That's not the worst part, Umi-san. If the Tower is closed for repairs, then we won't be able to get in and go to New Cephiro at all."

"Should we go and check it out?" Hikaru asked, turning back to look at them.

Umi nodded, and said, "We should finish cooking and eating first, though. I don't want all this to go to waste. Besides, those crowds of people are going to be there for hours yet, and we won't be able to get past them to see anything more than we can on TV."

Fuu busied herself with cooking up the rest of the food as Umi prepared the side dishes, neither of them really wanting to let the ever-excitable Hikaru near the pan of very hot oil. She was begrudgingly given the task of watching the rice cooker.

"This is very good, Fuu-chan!" Hikaru declared as the three of them dug in around the small table in the living room. They had positioned themselves in front of the TV to make sure they didn't miss any developments.

"Thank you, though Umi-san helped out a lot."

It was cold that April afternoon as the girls made their way through the busy Tokyo Metro on their way to the Tokyo Tower. It seemed most of the city was on its way to see the landmark in disrepair, even hours after the incident had happened. Seemingly everyone on their train had a camera, camcorder or a phone with some kind of camera function on it, ready and waiting to get their own evidence of the minor disaster.

Shiba Park was bustling, and the three of them made sure to hold on to each other so that they wouldn't get lost. They could see even from down below that the light had stopped - as it was required by air regulations to be kept on constantly - and that the very top of the Tower was bent and broken.

"Do you suppose that will be easy to fix?" Fuu wondered aloud to Umi and Hikaru. They stood in silent wonder beside her and shrugged.

Hikaru was the next to speak, after some time, "How are we going to get back to New Cephiro, Fuu-chan, Umi-chan?"

"I don't know, Hikaru. I'm wondering exactly the same thing," Umi responded, putting an arm around her friend's tiny shoulders, "I'm sure we can think of something."

"Surely, the Tokyo Tower isn't the only route into New Cephiro," Fuu stated bravely, "Don't you think we could get there by willing hard enough nearby?"

Umi removed her arm from Hikaru's shoulders and took her hand, Fuu's firmly in her other, "Let's try it."

"But what if we get stuck there for days again, Umi-chan? We have our new school starting tomorrow."

"Hey now, Fuu is the one that normally worries about things like that! Let's just see what we can do. We'll only be worrying about New Cephiro tomorrow, anyway."

Fuu was also apprehensive about this, but she looked over to Hikaru and gave her a small nod, and the three of them closed their eyes and concentrated.


	10. Chapter 10

"What are you doing here?" enquired a small voice.

Fuu's eyes snapped open as she recognised the shrill, generally informal voice. In front of her, she found the tiny Princess Aska of Fahren, in a large room, and the decorations and furnishings looked distinctly un-Cephiran, "Princess Aska?" She looked around, "Wait, where are Hikaru-san and Umi-san?"

Aska looked surprised, "You friends were with you? Where did you come from, Fuu? You just appeared right in front of me here in the Imperial Palace of Fahren's throne room."

"Perhaps your friends disappeared to the countries they are most familiar with outside New Cephiro?" Suggested a second voice; that of Aska's personal assistant, Sang Yung, "Should I fetch Elder Chang Ang, and we will see what we can do for you? I gather you meant to travel to New Cephiro, Miss Fuu. In the meantime, would you like to join us for afternoon tea and wagashi sweets?"

"Wagashi sweets?" Fuu repeated, momentarily forgetting about her problems in her interest, "That's a Japanese word."

Meanwhile, just as Sang Yung had predicted, Umi had rather walked in on - or appeared in on - a heated argument between the twin Princesses Tarta and Tatra over something to do with the alliance. The Magic Knight watched them, wide-eyed, for a moment, before looking around and recognising the inside of the Bravada, the curry-pot-shaped royal ship of the country of Chizeta. However, it seemed to be docked in Chizeta itself and used as its palace.

"Miss Umi!" Tatra called in delight, beyond pleased to have an excuse to stop arguing with her sister.

"Umi!" Tarta shouted, close to drawing her scythe but choosing to point menacingly instead, "What are you doing here?"

"I don't know!" Umi cried, looking desperate, "I was with Hikaru and Fuu, and there was a problem with the place we use to get through to New Cephiro, so we thought we'd try to come through without it, and we've been split up and I've ended up here," She was close to crying, and Tatra immediately stepped over and hugged her, "We start our first day at our new school together tomorrow, too."

"We need Master Mage Clef of Cephiro!" Tatra said urgently to her sister, "Tarta, please ask for the Bravada to be taken to the state of New Cephiro. We need to get our friend the Magic Knight safely back to her friends."

"Excellent!" Tarta said, looking much more pleased about this than Umi expected, "We need to speak to them, anyway. Let's get going. Staff! To your positions, please, now!" Tarta clapped very loudly, and their numerous female staff seemed to appear from the walls, "We're setting a course for New Cephiro. Please make Umi comfortable and welcome."

Hikaru was probably the most embarrassed of the three, since Geo and Zazu had come to rescue them just the day before in New Cephiro - if, as she suspected, the time really was working in synchronisation with the time on Earth.

"I could probably find my own way home, please don't worry!" Hikaru said as Geo and Zazu ran around in the military base trying to find their visitor a way home to New Cephiro, "I'm sure I can manage it."

"Don't be ridiculous, Magic Knight," Geo said, giving her a tired grin, "We are always happy to help you out. Besides, I am interested to know what's happening with your crazy portal as well."

Zazu came to a rest beside Hikaru, and caught Geo before he was about to move off again, "The President says we can use Eagle's hover car It's been sitting unused at their residence for quite some time, after all," he sighed, "Although the President also said that I wasn't to drive it, and that you would have to fetch the authorisation card from him yourself."

"Are you guys really sure? Really, really sure? Because I don't like to inconvenience people."

"Hikaru-chan, stop your worrying!" Zazu chided, having adopted Hikaru's way of addressing people, "Like we said, it's no problem."

Hikaru spent the next couple of hours of her life sat in this hover car, in the back with Zazu. It was a long fly - drive? fly? - back to New Cephiro, despite Geo's speedy driving. Zazu was extremely pleased because he got to talk to Hikaru, and they shared those hours discussing the similarities and differences between Earth and Autozam, and Earth and New Cephiro. Zazu was also quite interested to hear about New Cephiro, since he'd never really gotten to spend much time there, and everyone knew that it was a beautiful place again.

Umi and Fuu were travelling in slightly less subtle ways, however. Umi was stood at the front of the Bravada with Tarta, looking out towards New Cephiro in the distance.

"It's still so pretty from this far away," Umi sighed wistfully, smiling at the small country, "I should like to visit your country of Chizeta properly sometime, though, of course."

Tarta nodded, appreciative of Umi's enthusiasm for her country, "We would be very happy to have you stay sometime, Umi. As long as this problem you mentioned gets repaired sometime soon, of course."

"Have you decided what to do, Miss Umi?" Tatra asked, "It seems you soon have to decide whether to choose this dimension, or your own."

Umi turned to look at the more feminine sister, so much more demure and classically beautiful than the tomboyish Tarta, "No, we still haven't decided. We care just as much for what we have on both sides of the divide, I think. After all, our families are back on Earth, but we have all our friends...and loved ones...here in New Cephiro."

Fuu continued Umi's story on the Dome of Fahren, the massive dragon-shaped ship of Princess Aska. Chang Ang seemed enthusiastic to visit Cephiro in the meantime, so it had all worked out quite well, given the circumstances.

"We had rather alienated all of our local friends," Fuu explained, staring into her cup of green tea, and trying not to smile at the fact that Aska was eating most of the wagashi, "But we are starting a new school together without most of them, and we don't have to worry about it. I don't think the other girls would worry or miss us if we were gone."

"Really?" Aska said, "So you haven't told anyone else about this, which is why they can't understand?"

Fuu nodded, but then stopped as she remembered, "Well, I had to tell my sister at some point, because she found my journal open in my room one day and I had to explain it - I don't know why I didn't pass it off as a role-playing game, but it doesn't matter now," She put her cup down on the table, "Princess Aska, did I tell you-"

"Please," Aska interjected, "Just call me Aska. We are good friends, aren't we?"

"Yes, Aska-san, of course."

Aska sighed and raised an eyebrow, but knew this was as informal as she was going to get with Fuu, "Please, continue."

"Ah, yes! Well, Aska-san, Prince Ferio of New Cephiro and I are to be officially married, if it is possible for me to stay there long enough for that to happen, of course."

Aska clapped her hands together with glee, "A royal wedding, a royal wedding! I have never seen a royal wedding, and I do so love to hear about them," She put her small hands down on the table to steady herself as she leaned over, robes precariously dangling over the wagashi and tea, "Fuu, does this mean we will be royal allies?"

Fuu smiled brightly, "I suppose it does, Aska-san. And I would be very happy if you would agree to be part of my ceremony with Umi-san and Hikaru-san."

This was met with a happy scream of approval from the Fahrenian Princess, causing Sang Yung and Chang Ang to rush in from a side room. However, just as they had expected, Aska was simply over-excited rather than in any danger.

They were the first of the Magic Knights and their saviours to arrive back at New Cephiro Castle, where Clef was waiting for them; obviously someone had been able to call ahead and forewarn him of their arrival and the newest problem the Magic Knights were having. By now, Fuu was feeling quite guilty of continuing to visit New Cephiro at all, and she had started wondering if she should just stop and let Ferio marry some nice girl from Aueria.

"Kindly stop thinking that, Fuu," Clef said, easily reading the expression on her face as she and Aska alighted the Dome of Fahren into the atrium of the castle ahead of Sang Yung and Chang Ang, "We'll never get something done about your portal with thoughts like those."

"Master Mage Clef," Chang Ang greeted, as he and Sang Yung bowed in politeness. Princess Aska did so as well when a certain look was cast her way by the elder.

Clef bowed too - although it was more of a curtsey with robes like his and such a large staff to support, "It is our pleasure to host you, Elder Chang Ang, Courtier Sang Yung, and of course, the lovely Princess Aska."

"Where is Ferio?" Fuu found herself asking once again, just as Clef opened his mouth to wonder the same thing, "I shall find him if you would like me to, Master Mage Clef."

Clef nodded in thanks, and Fuu excused herself from Aska and her companions before running the familiar way down the hallway to find Ferio's chambers.

"Ferio!" Fuu called, opening the front door very slowly, "Are you in here?"

There was no response, and Fuu found the lounge to be completely empty, so she carried on through to his bedroom. And there, she found him.

The young Prince was laying still quite deeply asleep in his bed, just his head and arms, and some bare shoulder, visible above the covers. She swallowed nervously; he was very, very cute when he was asleep, and she knew he was probably naked under those sheets. She resolved to climb up onto the bed and wake him up from there.

"Ferio," Fuu said gently. He stirred and smiled slightly, but did not wake up. Fuu bit her lip, wondering if she could get away with...

"Mmm. Good morning," Ferio said as Fuu woke him up with a long, warm kiss. He opened his golden eyes to her and smiled, lifting a hand to capture her before she could move away, "This is a very nice surprise, Fuu."

"Ferio, I am sorry to interrupt this very romantic moment," Fuu said apologetically, wishing she could climb in with him - it had not been particularly warm in the Dome, "But I have just come from Fahren, it is late in the day, and there are other representatives from the other allied countries arriving soon. I think you may need to get dressed. I will wait in the lounge."

Ferio groaned and waited for Fuu to leave the room before he reluctantly climbed out of bed. He walked over to his walk-in closet and dressed in his normal royal clothes, in preparation for meeting the visitors. Affixing armour plates had now become second nature to him, and he informed Fuu that she could come back in as he was attaching the shoulder pads to his tunic and cape.

"Isn't that a pain to wear?" Fuu asked, indicating the last piece of clothing. Ferio's cape was a plain pure white one with a large decorative split in the back, apparently serving no functional purpose apart from looking pretty.

"Ah, but they are something of a status symbol in New Cephiro, and I did spend rather a long time growing up without wearing one," Ferio explained with a smile, twirling in something of an un-princely way to let it flow out from his motions, "They're pretty fun, really. Didn't you wear one, as part of your Magic Knight armour?"

Fuu shrugged, "I did, but it was only while I was merged with Windam. Now! Enough of this, we should be greeting our friends from Fahren, Chizeta and Autozam. Also," Fuu stepped in close to him and leaned up to press her nose against his, "I have invited Aska to our wedding."

Ferio was about to say something alliance-related to do with this, but then he realised what Fuu was saying, and took her hands and grinned, "Fuu, do you mean you're happy to go through with the marriage?"

Fuu delivered one of her smiles to him and nodded, "Well, I really think with Eagle helping us and the people from the other countries coming together as well, that we can help repair the problems with the portal and everything will be back to normal soon," She laughed, "Well, as normal as our lives get. This must be the most complicated long-distance relationship anyone on Earth has been in."

Ferio grinned even further, if that was possible, and hugged her tightly, "You make me so happy, Fuu," he released her and took just one of her hands, making his way towards his door, "Let's go and meet our friends and allies, then."

Clef looked quite suspicious as they arrived, of the time it had taken them to turn up, but he welcomed the sight of Prince Ferio, who greeted the Fahrenian visitors. Fuu spotted the Bravada coming into view, and Umi running along its red carpet as it docked with the castle.

She hugged Fuu just has hard as Ferio had just minutes ago, almost crying, "Fuu, I'm so glad we were able to find people we knew when we got separated! Do you know where Hikaru is? I suppose she's with Autozam's military."

"Is that her, Umi-san?" Fuu asked, pointing to the side of the Bravada's golden hull. Umi turned to look as well at the small metallic vehicle coming towards them, and the electronic music that was resonating out of it as it came into New Cephiro's atmosphere.

"Do you hear Hikaru and Zazu?" Umi asked, frowning.

Fuu nodded, "It sounds as if they are singing along to a pop dance song."

Fuu and Umi looked over at Clef in surprise, who said with chagrin, "That's the kind of music that's popular in Autozam right now."

"But...the language?" Umi asked, listening as they continued.

Eagle made a convenient appearance now, walking up behind Umi, which surprised her, "That's the first language of Autozam, Autoperanto. We in the military speak the common language of New Cephiro fluently, though."

"Levu la manojn!" Hikaru cried happily, laughing with Zazu as they both got out the back of the hover car, "Oh my God, you guys, the music in Autozam is just like the English music back at home."

Geo looked considerably less cheerful as he switched off the engine and got out of the driver's seat, "If you were wondering why Miss Hikaru is suddenly so proficient in Autoperanto, it's because we have been listening to that one song for over two hours."

Umi laughed and Fuu stifled a giggle. To add to Geo's misfortune, it was a well-known fact that Hikaru was not the best at singing, and was often quite shy about it, but conversely she did like to have fun. Besides, she could do no wrong in Zazu's eyes.

Lantis and Ascot seemed also to be alerted to the appearance of the girls, although it was very likely that Hikaru was starting to develop the ability to contact Lantis through her pendant without even physically speaking. 

Fuu nudged Umi gently in the ribs and whispered, "It's getting late, Umi-san, shouldn't we ask for them to send us back to Earth now? We have our first day at CLAMP School tomorrow."

Umi looked at her with the most amazingly unwilling look on her face before she went to greet Ascot, "I suppose so, Fuu."

Fuu cleared her throat and started to address the group in the atrium, but she was drowned out and unnoticed due to the many conversations going on. Ferio noticed, however, and he lifted her up onto his strong shoulders before clapping loudly and authoritatively asking everyone to be silent.

Fuu coughed politely again, slightly embarrassed of her vantage point, but she spoke regardless, wobbling precariously on the prince's shoulders, "My two good friends and I have to be back home very soon, for we start our higher level of education just tomorrow. If you would assist us in travelling back to our home world, it would be very appreciated," she paused to look around at them all, "We thank you of course, from Fahren, Chizeta and Autozam, for bringing us back safely to New Cephiro. We could not be halfway home without you."

"The landmark we use to travel to and from New Cephiro from Earth is broken at the top," Hikaru piped up in explanation, "I think this might be the reason we were sent off in different directions."

Eagle's brown eyes widened and he looked over at Geo, "When we pushed that metal flashing thing out of the sky, Lieutenant Commander, didn't we push it away from Cephiro?"

Geo nodded, "We came from Cephiro, so it made sense for us to be facing that way."

"New Cephiro," Ferio interjected, smirking when he was met with eye-rolls for his pedantry.

Clef coughed loudly enough to get everyone's attention and spoke, "The longer we wonder about this, the later it is getting for the Magic Knights to go home. I imagine they have some way to travel back to their own individual homes after they have made it back to Earth," He looked around at the three girls, "Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, I gather that it will take some time for your 'Tokyo Tower' to be repaired with your Earth engineering techniques."

Fuu nodded, still on Ferio's shoulders, "We don't know how long it will take, at all, but it is a great source of pride and a large tourist destination for the people of Tokyo and Japan, so it would be treated with urgency. Additionally, the lights at the top are now broken, and this poses a risk to aircraft in our area."

"We wondered if the combination of our friends and allies might be able to use their power of will to help repair the portal from this side," Umi added, looking from Clef to the representatives of Chizeta, who smiled back at her.

"It would require quite a lot of will power," Clef acknowledged, "But I believe it would be doable. But what would be so important or social that it would bring all the people together?"

There was a short silence, during which Ferio started to lower Fuu back down from his shoulders, and then Hikaru spoke up again, "If Fuu-chan would excuse me...isn't the marriage of Prince Ferio to her quite a source of interest to every country, not just New Cephiro?"

The silence resumed, broken only by murmurs from the crowd and quiet mutterings of disgust from Ascot. Ferio and Fuu looked at each other with worry and surprise, neither really sure what to say or think.

"It is settled," Clef suddenly declared, tapping his staff loudly on the stone floor, "We will host the marriage of Prince Ferio to the Magic Knight of Wind, as I believe they would like to get married sooner rather than later, as well."

"We'll make sure to attempt re-entry to Cephiro once the Tokyo Tower is repaired," Umi said, encouraged by Clef's words, "And then we can organise the event from here. We may require the same cooperation we have just received from our friends in Chizeta, Fahren and Autozam, of course, as we can't know where we'll end up arriving to."

"Wait!" Ferio interrupted, "Haven't you thought to ask us if that's what we want to do?" He paused, receiving lots of quizzical looks from the crowd, "Of course, it's not like we don't want to get married, or that we don't want to help..."

"So what's the problem?" Clef asked, looking tired, "If this is the best way forward for Umi, Hikaru and Fuu to keep coming here, surely you don't mind in the slightest, given you won't have much of a marriage without at least Fuu."

Fuu took Ferio's hand. He looked down at her, and she nodded in encouragement. Fuu now addressed the crowd, "Then we will do it. Sorry for our hesitance."

"Then let's get you home," Clef said with a smile, over an applause that almost drowned them out, "Please be ready to go in a few minutes."

Fuu watched Umi and Ascot, and then Lantis and Hikaru say their long goodbyes. Ferio put a gloved hand on her shoulder and she turned to face him, both unsure of whether to be happy or sad.

"We're going to get married," Fuu said, her voice wavering but her eyes smiling definitely up in to his.

Ferio nodded, pulling her into a close hug, "Please come back as soon as you can, Fuu."

"Of course," Fuu said, sliding her arms around him in return and only moving reluctantly when her two best friends came over to separate them.

Ferio now grabbed her back from Hikaru and Umi, pulling her in for a deep and meaningful kiss. Umi whistled and Hikaru clapped, as did a certain Chizetan resident of New Cephiro.

"Remember while you're stuck on Earth, that I love you," Ferio said as he released a very dazed and red-faced Fuu, "Come back soon and become my Princess of New Cephiro."

Laughing and pulling the future Princess of New Cephiro with them, Umi and Hikaru prepared themselves for the trip back. Fuu stood facing Ferio, never taking her eyes off him as everybody around them combined their powers of will, mental energy, or whatever their cultural equivalent was. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light as they appeared in the now much colder Shiba Park, exactly where they had stood hours ago.

"So cold!" Hikaru shouted, rubbing her arms to keep warm, "Let's get down into the Metro to warm up!"

They were both quite conscious of Fuu's quietness and thought she might be a little tearful. They sat with Fuu between them on the Metro train, holding on to both of her arms. She was the first to get off the train, and she hugged both her good friends before she departed.

As she walked the short distance home in the cool air, she smiled as she found mails from them both on her mobile phone, using it for light and comfort. She didn't expect for anyone to be out in her neighbourhood to cause trouble, so she was quite relaxed, despite her constant vigilance in the darker evenings.

Her entrance through the front door was met with hugs from Kuu and her mother - she was getting rather a lot of these today - as well as a near-tearful telling off from her father. Fuu hugged them all back and cried, telling them she was sorry, and that she would explain the reason one day.

Hikaru had a similar confrontation with her brothers when she returned to the family dojo - she'd been away for quite some time, and she, life Fuu, had realised that they had not contacted their families to let them know they were safe since they had arrived back from New Cephiro the first time.


	11. Chapter 11

The three of them met up outside the front gates of the CLAMP School. Fuu was there first, stood with Kuu, who was just starting her final year. Kuu disappeared once Umi turned up.

"I don't know yet how much I like the uniform," Umi said, trying to smooth down the puffy skirt of the school dress comprising the senior high school uniform. It was a largely black dress with long sleeves, a large high-necked white collar reminiscent of sailor fuku, and a large pale aqua-coloured bow at the neck.

"I have looked forward to wearing it, actually, Umi-san, although it is sad to let go of the uniforms we seemed to wear to Cephiro rather a number of times," Fuu said with a small laugh, "Now, where is Hikaru-san? Our first assembly starts in ten minutes."

Hikaru appeared just then, of course, her hair loose from its braid and two of the mint-coloured bows in her hand, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Can you help me with my hair, Umi-chan, Fuu-chan?"

"Hikaru, really," Umi laughed, separating her friend's long hair into three strands and starting to plait it tightly, "I'm sure you were up early for this, as well."

Hikaru nodded, but regretted it when she realised how tightly Umi was holding onto her hair, "Ouch. Yes, I was up very early this morning, but that's because I have chores split with my brothers..."

Fuu took the other ribbon from Hikaru and started to tie it under her friend's chin, "You could be doing this yourself, Hikaru-san. You had a bow like this on your last school uniform."

"Thank you Fuu-chan," Hikaru said with a smile, "And Umi-chan, thank you, I don't think my hair is going to come undone for about a week."

The girls, laughing, linked their arms together and entered the CLAMP campus for the first time as students of the senior high school institution.

The presentation for the new students, in the largest sports hall that the girls had ever seen, was hosted by a Mr Imonoyama - Fuu recognised the name, being something of a CLAMP School expert due to Kuu's stories, "Imonoyama-san is the head of the CLAMP School Zaibatsu. He's not just the principal."

"I did notice, looking from the Tokyo Tower a few times, that the CLAMP School takes up rather a large amount of the city," Umi added in agreement as they left the initial presentation, "There's all kinds of things here. We've only been coming to the senior high, at the very north of the campus, when there's miles of it to explore. There's a hospital here, I think..."

"Hospital, shops, gardens, houses, internal transit system!" Hikaru reeled things off, counting on her fingers, "It's amazing! It's more like a gated residential community."

They made their way to the building where their homeroom was. The CLAMP School was a little different to traditional Japanese schools, in that the varied specialist subjects the students could take required that the students moved around, rather than the teachers. For example, neither Fuu, Umi nor Hikaru were taking any of their chosen subject classes together, although they were taught in homeroom for subjects such as Japanese, citizenship, and a small number of other compulsory subjects, for a few hours per week. The rest would be dedicated to their chosen specialisms.

They had decided on a meeting place for lunchtimes and other breaks; the botanical gardens in the south-west direction of the campus, easily accessible by the school's rapid transport system.

"I love this school!" Hikaru cried with glee, "I'm so glad I worked super hard at my kendo to get in."

"And I'm glad my parents agreed to pay for my scholarship," Umi agreed, bringing out a box from the bag she was carrying, "We got to make whatever we wanted in our first week of cooking class, so I made bento for the three of us today. It is Friday now after all!"

"We made it through our first week as senior high school students," Fuu said with a great sense of accomplishment, "And we're finally able to do that together."

Hikaru, tired of waiting for Umi to dish out the bento, leaned back in the grass and looked up at the sky, "I guess all we have to worry about now is the state of the Tokyo Tower."

Fuu selected a small piece of food from Umi's selection and chewed it carefully before expressing her delight, and then turned to Hikaru, "Well, Hikaru-san, our homeroom class is discussing what to do for a festival to raise money for that. We have to help the Tokyo Metropolitan Government out due to the cost of the repairs."

"I'd love to have a massive festival on the campus," Umi said wistfully, "You know, a proper, traditional matsuri, with fishing and kiosks selling dango and everything."

"Then put the idea forward, Umi-chan. We can't wear summer yukata, but we can wear some other kimonos...everyone has their own kimono, right? I couldn't imagine any student of the CLAMP School not having a kimono..." Hikaru continued her mumbling, and picked out some of the food with her fingers.

Umi gave her a sharp tap across the knuckles with some disposable chopsticks and then handed them to her, "And I can't imagine any respectable student of the CLAMP School eating with their hands, Hikaru!"

"It's very good, Umi-chan," Hikaru said around a mouthful of food, earning a nod of agreement from Fuu. She snapped the chopsticks apart and continued eating rather more civilly with them.

"How has your first week gone?" asked a familiar voice. Umi and Hikaru were quite alarmed to find a peacock amongst them, eyeing up their food, "Pochi, don't do that. It's not yours."

"Very well, Kuu-oneesama!" Fuu responded with a big smile, reaching out to touch Pochi's feathers. Umi and Hikaru remained looking terrified, while Fuu smiled disarmingly, "Pochi is very tame, Umi-san, Hikaru-san."

"I'm sure he is, but you know, it's not really what I expected to have walking into the middle of my bento," Umi explained. She was not a large fan of things with feathers.

"That's so cool, Kuu-san! You have a pet peacock?" Hikaru asked, genuinely impressed now she had gotten over the initial surprise; she was the girl who literally had conversations with her dog Hikari, and had understood and befriended Mokona the most, after all, "And I have very much enjoyed my first week here, too. So has Umi-chan. We think the school is really great!"

Kuu stood and talked for a while, Umi still quite uncomfortable with the presence of Pochi, as she was sure the peacock was eyeing her up for some reason. Plotting some later evil deeds, no doubt. He just had that look about him.

The last of that Friday afternoon was spent in homeroom, coming up with ideas for the cross-campus fund-raiser. Umi's suggestion of a traditional matsuri was well-received, although it also transpired that just about every class across the campus had come up with the same idea, so it was quite a unanimous decision that the entire campus would be decorated up as a massive matsuri festival.

The four of them - the Magic Knights and Kuu - made a leisurely stroll to the nearest metro station on their way home after this.

"Wow, I'm going to have to find my kimono from the back of my closet!" Umi said, thinking hard about where she'd put it, "I do hope that it still fits me, we don't really have time to get new ones made up."

"I wear mine pretty regularly for family meetings," Hikaru said, "So mine is not too far from hand all the time. It's all very formal when we have meetings about the dojo, you see."

"Fuu-san's is probably in storage with mine," Kuu said, "I think she should get it out for her wedding, though."

Fuu was surprised, "Kuu-oneesama! Not with so many people around."

Umi clapped her hands together, "Yes, an excellent idea! Ferio will be wearing the royal dress of New Cephiro, and you will be wearing the traditional dress of your own country, Fuu! It's perfect."

"Really, all this fuss just over me..."

"Just over you? It's a royal wedding, you silly girl." Hikaru chided, sounding unnaturally adult, "It's the biggest occasion of...well, forever!"

A few minutes passed, as Umi and Hikaru's laughter died down and then they walked in silence, admiring the spring foliage and fresh air.

"Have you decided what to do, Fuu-san?" Kuu asked, noticing that her sister was unusually quiet, even for her, "Are you going to live there as soon as you get married, or are you going to wait?"

Fuu looked up in surprise, "I'm not going to permanently live in New Cephiro until I'm done with senior high school, Kuu-oneesama."

Umi looked over, "But Fuu, didn't we figure this out before? If you consummate the marriage, then there's a chance you can--"

"Yes, Umi-san, thank you. I will just have to hold off doing that."

This caused a stunned silence between Hikaru and Umi, and Kuu didn't really know what to say either. None of them were sure that Fuu really had everything quite as figured out as she thought she did.

"Fuu-chan, you can't just say you won't do that for like...three years."

Fuu looked over at Hikaru now, her eyes wide with distress, "There's no rules in New Cephiro about marriage, Hikaru-san! I should be able to do whatever I want if that's my choice."

"Whatever you and Ferio want," Umi corrected.

•••

The CLAMP School fund-raising matsuri was held an agonising week later. Fuu and her two friends knew that construction had started to repair the Tokyo Tower, but they were still lacking in funding. Really, what had been holding them back from holding this festival a little earlier in the week?

And so she and her sister stood waiting for Hikaru and Umi to finish getting changed in the girls' changing rooms. The Hououji sisters had opted to wear their kimonos on the metro, but it would be a longer ride for Umi in her much more lavish kimono, and an even further journey for Hikaru, out in the suburbs where Tokyo started meeting green farmland.

The campus had very much been transformed into a beautiful festival of warm orange lights, food stalls selling takoyaki - octopus and batter dumplings - dango and other traditional festival treats. Many stalls offered a goldfish catching game, as well as an abundance of classical toys and craft stands. The arts and drama students were performing a traditional dance around a bonfire, and somewhere in the centre of the botanical gardens a karaoke stand was competing with the CLAMP School orchestra for control over the ambient noise.

Fuu was always very fond of festivals, and this one was particularly fantastic in its size and the amount of work that had gone into it. She was also very pleased to have an excuse to wear her kimono, as it hadn't seen the light of day in a good year or so. It was something of a lime green colour, with a simple darker green pattern, and a deep orange obi and under-robe. Her hair had changed little from its normal style, but Kuu had insisted on reusing an old obi cord to wear as a hair band, a bow tied in it to hold it.

"This school is truly amazing, isn't it, Fuu-san?" Kuu asked, still as delighted as she had been on her first day here as a senior high freshman.

Fuu smiled and nodded, "That's very true, Kuu-oneesama."

Kuu had always loved purple rather a lot, and her lilac kimono with bird prints resembling those god-awful chick pastries represented more than one of her favourite things. Her obi and the other accents in her ensemble were a dark teal colour, a lot less of a contrast than most traditional kimono ensembles.

"Look, there are your friends!" Kuu said, indicating the tall blue-haired girl and a much shorter red-headed girl, wearing blue and teal kimonos respectively.

"Hikaru-san isn't wearing red?" Fuu asked, looking over Hikaru's clothing. The obi was red, and featured something reminiscent of the moon-rabbit of Japanese folklore, the pattern on her kimono akin to fletchings on an arrow. Umi's sakura-patterned blue kimono was rather less of a surprise, with its burgundy under-robe and sunset-coloured obi.

"Why do people always expect that of me?" Hikaru bemoaned, "Just because my hair is red and by chance my junior high school uniform was red."

Umi ruffled her friend's hair, "And the colour representative of fire magic is red, isn't it, Hikaru? As well as the main colour of Rayearth's armour, and your Magic Knight final armour..."

"Like some elaborate practical joke," Hikaru said, "But anyway, let's go and enjoy the matsuri! I love catching tiny goldfish."

Fuu and Kuu found themselves standing around rather a lot as Hikaru and Umi did most of the participating and buying, although they did find a few things to buy for various relatives' birthdays and general gifts.

"That's very pretty, Fuu-san," Kuu said, indicating a string of multicoloured paper cranes made by the elementary school division, "Wouldn't that be nice to show your friends in that other world? In fact, I will buy it, and you can give it to my brother-in-law as a wedding present."

Fuu smiled and laughed, knowing Ferio would be overjoyed to receive something as simple as this, just because it meant he would know just a little bit more about her culture, "That's very kind, Kuu-oneesama. Ferio will love it."

Kuu beamed, and Fuu gratefully received the string in a small paper bag. Hikaru bounced over to them carrying goldfish in a plastic bag, and Umi could be seen purchasing takoyaki for the four of them, somewhere in the background.

"I'm going to name them Eagle and Lantis!" Hikaru said, indicating a dark goldfish and a much paler one.

Umi turned up next to her, tucking her coin purse into the large sleeve of her kimono, and then adjusted the four boats of takoyaki in her hands "And who's going to look after them while we're in Cephiro, Hikaru?"

Hikaru pouted, raising the bag to eye height, "Well, I suppose one of my brothers might remember to feed them for one or two days before I need to start considering a full-time minder. Besides, we have a koi pond in the dojo garden, I'm sure when they get bigger they might be able to live in there."

"Wouldn't the koi eat them, Hikaru-san?"

Hikaru looked horrified at Fuu's suggestion, and turned to Umi without answering, "Shall we find somewhere to go and eat our takoyaki, Umi-chan?"

"Please," said Umi, "I think the boats might start burning my hands soon."

They sat watching the karaoke contest, which had finally ousted the orchestra in its favour. Many of the contestants were hilariously bad, especially where some of the university division students had started to get quite drunk towards the end of the evening. Kuu was just rolling the last of her takoyaki into her mouth when someone new though undoubtedly familiar appeared on the karaoke stage.

"Nokoru Imonoyama!" Kuu squealed in fangirlish delight at the sight of the young blonde-haired boy on-stage, wearing the uniform of the junior high school division, "Ah, head of the CLAMP School Detectives! They helped me to find Pochi once when we became separated, you know."

Fuu sighed; Kuu had told this story to her thousands of times, and at least several times to Umi and Hikaru when they had been in the same room as her.

"Nokoru-san is so charming," Kuu added wistfully, "He told me I was very beautiful, the day he found me pining over Pochi. And when he and his colleagues solved the mystery for me, oh! I gave them kisses in thanks."

The others found this rather distressing given that Nokoru and his two council members were possibly no more than twelve years old, but ignored Kuu in favour of listening to the presentation.

"Thank you for indulging me," Nokoru spoke clearly into the microphone, to a massive cheer from the female population attending the matsuri, "And thank you all for coming to help with this very impressive fund-raising event held by our CLAMP School. If you wouldn't mind, I will pass you over to our treasurer, Akira Ijyuin."

"Yes, thank you, Nokoru!" Akira was a cheerful and inarguably adorable boy, still in the elementary division, "I think every class made an average of 9,000 yen, which is very impressive, given that we have around eight classes for every year at the whole academy."

A third young man stepped up to the stage, wearing the same uniform as Akira, dark blue hair and golden eyes that stunningly reminded Fuu of Ferio, "Good evening, Suoh Takamura, club secretary. We believe that around 90% of the CLAMP School students either participated or attended the festival, as well as a massive number of people from the Tokyo metropolitan area."

"All in all, a fantastic night's work in the spirit of Tokyo pride for our favourite landmark. Give yourselves a pat on the back, everybody!" Nokoru encouraged with a large smile, eliciting cheers from the entire crowd now. Kuu was particularly loud and energetic in her cheering and clapping, causing Fuu to quickly snatch the empty takoyaki boat from her lap before the leftover cooking oils went all over hers or someone else's kimono.

•••

Another few weeks went by, the Magic Knights and their confidant Kuu constantly watching the news for the status of repairs to the Tokyo Tower. They didn't seem to be very speedy, but as Nokoru had said, there was a lot of pride in the maintenance of that landmark, and they were probably very meticulous about repairing it. The damage and repairs themselves were drawing more and more tourist attention, with the government tourist board finding people were willing to pay to get just inside a ring-fenced area to get a better look. A makeshift scaffold platform was also erected next to it, to provide a little extra height for photographers, and local plane and helicopter tour companies seemed to be raking in money for an aerial view, much to the annoyance of the workers fixing the tower.

"I want to go back!" Hikaru moaned; she was always the first to break when it came to extended periods of leave from new Cephiro, "and I’m surprised Fuu-chan hasn't been worrying about her wedding more!"

"Calm down, Hikaru!" Umi chided, looking back at her homework. They had got together at Fuu's house to do their weekly compulsory homework to do with language, mathematics and science, three subjects that the three of them had differing skills in, so it was always better to study together.

"I do want to get married soon, Hikaru-san, but I don’t think I should worry about it too much, as it isn't going to make the tower get repaired any faster whether I think about it or not."

"Yes, we can't apply the power of will on this side of the portal, Hikaru," Umi added.

Hikaru pouted and looked back at her mathematics homework, resolving that she was going to finish it without help whether it killed her or not. Every minute that passed doing work, they were a minute closer to going back to new Cephiro, and this is what spurred her on.

"Fuu-san, girls, there is an important news report on TV now!" Kuu called from downstairs in the living room.

"Thank you, Kuu-oneesama!" Fuu called back, scrabbling around to find the remote control for the small TV in her room. Hikaru and Umi sat up with interest to watch the news report; they gathered that it must be about the Tokyo Tower, and all homework was now forgotten.

There was an agonisingly long introduction to the news story, and at this hour the news station had suddenly decided to present an extensive weather forecast. Hikaru almost felt like she was going to burst if this news report didn't come on soon, and Umi and Fuu were starting to fidget in anticipation as well.

"In this exclusive broadcast of the news, officials say that the repairs to the Tokyo Tower after its mysterious damage just over a month ago should be completed in time for a reopening on Saturday morning. Visitors are advised to book ahead to get into the observation decks that weekend, if desired."

"Fuu-chan, that's the perfect day for your wedding!" Hikaru squealed, and Fuu feared that her parents might hear the excitable redhead if they weren't careful.

Umi became the voice of reason in this situation, "But aren't we going to have to fight off rather a lot of people to get tickets on that first day?"

Fuu went to pick up the cordless phone left laying on her bed, but she noticed that the line was busy. She ran downstairs to where she thought the other phone was, to find Kuu giving her a thumbs up, "four tickets, yes, please. Yes, I have a debit card here. The name is Hououji Kuu. Yes, 'Kuu' written as 'sky'."

Fuu smiled and clapped her hands over her mouth with glee, surprise, relief, and possibly rather a lot of other overjoyed emotions; obviously, Kuu had foreseen the news, and had been one of the first in the queue on the ticket hotline.

"And I just have to bring this card with me on the day?" Kuu confirmed after she had shared her bank details with the booking operator, "Thank you very much, my sister and her friends will be very pleased."

"Thank you so much, Kuu-oneesama!" Fuu cheered, giving her sister the tightest hug she had ever given her; they had become so much closer upon Fuu sharing the secrets of new Cephiro with her than they had ever been before.

Kuu hugged back, but then spoke again, "In all seriousness, Fuu-san, I was kind of hoping that you might be able to take me with you, if you are indeed going to get married on that weekend. I’d like to see your fantasy world and meet your future husband just once. Just once. I’ll never ask you again, and I’ll never tell anyone."

"Well..." Fuu said, "Well, I will have to talk to Umi and Hikaru to see what they think, but I think it would be quite terrible for us to refuse you after you have just booked these tickets for us."

"It wasn't my intention to blackmail you with them," Kuu laughed apologetically, "I just thought it would be a little harder to say no. But I would, in all honesty, just like to see the place that brought you and your friends together, and meet the people that make you so happy."

Fuu nodded, "And that means you can deliver that gift yourself, Kuu-oneesama."

Umi and Hikaru appeared on the stairs, inquisitive. Kuu turned to them in excitement and said, "We're going to Cephiro for a wedding on Saturday, girls!"

"'We'?" Umi asked with interest, "Kuu-san, I don't know if we can get you through the portal."

Hikaru nudged her, "Umi-chan, you can't say that after someone has just successfully bought tickets against their bank account for us to go through."

"What will Clef say? That's what I’m mostly worried about" Umi said, looking at Kuu apologetically.

Kuu shook her head, "Don't worry, Umi-san, I only intend to visit once, for a little while. as I just said to Fuu-san, I won't do it again, and I won't share it with anyone. Not even mother and father."

"What do you think, Umi-san?" Fuu asked, looking just as pleading as her sister.

Umi shrugged, smiling, "It's not up to me, is it? I suppose we can take Kuu-san through and then see what everyone says about it. I'm positive Clef or someone has the ability to send her back if he's not pleased."

"Are you prepared for that, Kuu-chan?" Hikaru asked, agreeing with Umi's words.

Kuu nodded, "That's the best I can hope for, right? I’ll leave it up to this Master Mage Clef fellow."


	12. Chapter 12

The week was now just as agonising for Kuu as it was for the Magic Knights, knowing that she was going to visit and see somewhere that nobody else would ever see. A beautiful place full of magic, legends, strange creatures and apparently very handsome young men. She was going to find it hard to sleep for many more nights before the weekend came around.

Kuu carefully counted the paper money she had received from Fuu, Umi and Hikaru in payment for the tickets, knowing she would need to deposit them in the CLAMP campus bank before they went off to the tower on Saturday. Just a few minutes later the bell rang for the start of their lunch hour, and so she got on the next rapid rail transit train that came along.

She busied her self on the minutes-long journey with separating the notes into denominations, and fishing out her bank card from her purse. a purse full of trinkets, photos, receipts and tickets.

"You were incredibly lucky to get those tickets to the Tokyo Tower, Kuu-san," said one of the classmates who had chosen to tag along with her; she had nothing better to do today, "But is there any special reason that you are going?'

Kuu smiled and shook her head, "No, but my younger sister and her two best friends have a special place in their hearts for the Tower, because it's where they met. They've been working towards studying here at CLAMP School since they met there, so it's just nice for them to go to something like this. Kind of special. I also really like Umi-san and Hikaru-san, so I’m happy to do things that make them happy as well."

The stop soon came up, and Kuu and her friend alighted the train. It sped off seconds later, something that every CLAMP student took quite a few weeks to get used to after their induction.

The bank was busy to overflowing today, and all the teller windows were open and being used. Kuu sighed in resignation and stood in the queue, glad that she had someone with her to ease the boredom of waiting in a bank.

She couldn't wait; like Hikaru, she was counting down the minutes until they could go to the Tokyo Tower, and she was finding it hard to concentrate on anything else at school or at home.

•••

The four had decided to wear their kimonos to the event at the Tokyo Tower, since the news report had declared it a formal event, and they knew they couldn't take too many things through the portal; besides, they were wearing this to the wedding, weren't they? Kuu had been informed of this limit too too, and was glad her gift of the paper crane string was small enough to take through the portal.

Hikaru and Umi seemed to be looking around for pamphlets and tourist booklets in a lower section of the Tower, stuffing their kimono sleeves with paper that might interest their friends in New Cephiro. Kuu had actually craftily hidden something in the bottom of her sister's kimono sleeves, but Fuu hadn't yet reached in to find any of it. She'd put it in the right-hand sleeve, knowing that Fuu was right-handed and normally stored things in the left sleeve for ease of access.

As part of the formal reopening of the Tower, drinks and snacks were served as part of the ticket price, and Kuu was overjoyed to find the chick pastries on offer. Individually wrapped this time, she hid some of those in her sleeves as well, sending the other girls over to get extra ones. Fuu sighed; she could tell these were going to be distributed in the Castle, and she really didn't like them.

"We need to find a very quiet, secluded place on the observation deck to do this, Kuu-oneesama," Fuu explained, taking her sister's hand to get her attention, "We don't want anybody to see us disappear into thin air, which is what I think the portal is causing at the moment."

Hikaru joined in on the conversation, chewing on a chocolate bar she'd been offered by another of the waiting staff, "I think the area near the elevators that are still out of order might be the best place to try. I saw it earlier when Umi-chan and I were getting leaflets."

They picked their time carefully, when the government department in charge of maintenance and tourism to the Tokyo Tower called everyone around for a presentation. The girls took their chance to run around the back of the central elevator pillar, unnoticed as even the Tower staff had gone to watch.

"Kuu-san, we can't guarantee that this will go smoothly," Umi advised as she took Kuu's other hand, "We have ended up in the sea before, and we have ended up in totally the wrong allied country."

"It's an adventure, though!" Hikaru declared, "I'm super excited about this. Just close your eyes and believe in us, Kuu-chan, and don't let go of Fuu-chan no matter what you do."

Kuu did as Hikaru instructed, and she sensed a blinding flash of dazzling white light beyond her eyelids. Suddenly, the ambience seemed to change, and after a rushing feeling of weightlessness, she found a plush carpeted floor under her feet.

Umi was apparently the first to open her eyes, "Just how hard were you wishing to see Prince Ferio, Fuu?"

"Ah..." Fuu said, flushing a bright red colour as she realised where they were, "I suppose this is not the worst place we have ended up."

"Is this Prince Ferio's bedroom?" Hikaru asked, at which point Kuu decided it was probably safe to open her eyes, to a very flustered, green-haired young man.

This was the Ferio she had seen in the photo Fuu brought back for her. Ferio too recognised Kuu as the sister Fuu had shown him photos of from one of her many electrical devices, and he was very surprised to see anyone other than the three Magic Knights suddenly appear from...well, anywhere, really.

"You are getting married tomorrow!" Umi declared, to which Ferio looked even more disorientated.

"I beg your pardon, Umi?" Ferio asked, not quite sure his senses were fully functioning correctly, "And how did you bring Fuu's sister - I'm sorry, your name escapes me - through the portal? More to the point, what are you all doing in my room?"

"This is Kuu-oneesama, your future sister-in-law Ferio," Fuu explained, and then stopped as Ferio looked confused, "Just Kuu in your case, then, the 'oneesama' means that I am addressing her as my older sister."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Prince Ferio!" Kuu said with utmost sincerity, bowing low, "I understand you make Fuu-san very happy."

Ferio assumed this was an act of respect in their culture, and made a small bow of his own, "It's nice to finally meet you too, Kuu-san, and may I welcome you under these slightly awkward circumstances, on behalf of the people of New Cephiro, to my bedroom, apparently."

Umi nudged Hikaru, amused by Ferio's use of the honorific 'san' that had apparently rubbed off on him from the near-annoying consistent formality of his fiancée.

Hikaru however took this as a nudge into action, and said; "Prince Ferio, we don't have much longer than today and tomorrow to be here, and since we had the reopening of the landmark at home today, and we are all dressed up in our traditional clothes, we think it would be the perfect time to hold your wedding, just like Umi-chan said."

Ferio digested this a little more easily this time, "Then we had best speak to Master Mage Clef, and we had also better arrange some accommodation and induction to New Cephiro for Kuu-san here."

"I will warn you, Kuu-oneesama," Fuu said, turning back to her sister, "The view through the large window outside Ferio's suite is a very breathtaking one, and we are also at a very, very high altitude."

Fuu was right to warn her, as when they emerged from Ferio's front lounge - somewhere else that intrigued her, but she'd have to go back and investigate it later - she stopped and stared, backing up against the wall next to the door when shocked more than Fuu could have warned her by the height of the Castle and the beautiful springtime view that lay in front of her.

"This is for you, by the way, Prince Ferio," Kuu said, handing the paper bag to him without even looking, as Fuu encouraged her over towards the thick pane of reinforced glass. Looking straight down she could see the busy community of New Cephiro Castle Town with its people looking smaller than ants, and the moat surrounding it. Beyond stretched green plains, farmland, rivers, forests and numerous mountain ranges, tiny villages and one or two volcanoes. "This place is really, really amazing," Kuu concluded, now unable to tear herself away.

Ferio meanwhile was thoroughly pleased with the paper cranes, a gift that Hikaru had missed seeing at the matsuri, and so she was admiring it with him, "It's called origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into pretty things! The elementary school students on our campus made them."

"I don't really understand a lot of your terminology, Hikaru, but thank you very much for this, Kuu," Ferio said, and then worried when he didn't hear a reply, "Kuu, we will give you a tour of New Cephiro from the air with the assistance of our summoner Ascot, but please come with us now to see the Master Mage."

Kuu wondered how the others remembered the corridors so well, as Umi and Hikaru seemed to be skipping along ahead of them while she talked with Fuu and Ferio. Although, given the amount of times per month that they had managed to visit the Tokyo Tower, she supposed the matter was hardly surprising.

They took a turn that Fuu did not recognise immediately, and found that Master Mage Clef's office had moved places in the Castle. They entered the room after Ferio knocked for permission, and upon Clef's look of surprise at the fifth member of the group, Fuu started to explain the situation, including Kuu's speedy thinking for buying them the tickets.

"I am surprised, Fuu, that you of all people did not think to ask before you brought someone new through the portal - no offence intended, Miss Kuu, I can only assume that they have been treating you with the best hospitality," Clef amended, but then continued his speech, "It was not imperative that you visited right this moment. But as I can see, your sister is here now, and we can't exactly send her back now she knows so much."

"I want her to be part of my wedding, Master Mage Clef. Is it possible that it can take place tomorrow?"

Clef's face read something along the lines of 'you must be kidding me', but the looks on hers and Ferio's faces, as well as the puppy-dog eyes being cast at him from the other three girls, persuaded better of him, "Well, we would have to alert the whole of New Cephiro to the matter, and we would have to communicate with our various allies."

"Lantis and Eagle can get a message to Autozam," Hikaru said, "And they can notify Chizeta and Fahren from there, they have the technology. Zazu was telling me about it just the other day."

"Very well," said Clef, rubbing his temples, "Prince Ferio and Fuu will be married tomorrow afternoon. I will notify the Castle staff and get them to organise everything. Just keep yourselves out of trouble, and make sure you continue to show Miss Kuu the best of Cephiran hospitality."

•••

"We're not all going to fit in here," Hikaru said, very firmly.

"It's fine, we can just get another single bed brought in for Kuu-san," Umi said, waving her hand.

The girls had located a fourth matching nightdress for Kuu, and had showed her to all the appropriate washroom facilities in the castle, but they hadn't thought about accommodating her overnight.

"Yeah, I'm sure we could get, like, Lafarga and Lantis to help us bring an extra bed in here."

"Why not Ferio?" Fuu asked out of the blue.

Hikaru spluttered as she laughed, and said, "Silly Fuu-chan, princes don't move furniture."

"And he's a tiny guy, anyway, Fuu," Umi added, a smirk on her face.

"Not as tiny as that Clef guy," Kuu reminded her.

There was a long silence, and everyone looked at Umi, except Kuu, who just looked horrified, as she realised she'd said something inappropriate.

"Umi-san, I--"

"It's fine!" Umi said with a bright smile, "I'm with Ascot. It's okay."

"So you spent all day with Ascot and didn't speak to Clef, then, Umi-chan?"

"We need to get that extra bed in here," Umi said, "Kuu, come with me to find someone."

Fuu and Hikaru looked at each other uncertainly as Kuu flashed them an awkward grin and accompanied Umi out of the door and down the corridor.

"Do you want to talk about it, Umi-san?" Kuu asked, after a few moments of tense silence. "I'm sorry for bringing up--"

"I'm sorry, Kuu, I'm so torn up, and I can't speak to the happily taken ones in there about it any more," she sighed, indicating the room they had just come from, "Not that I'm not happy for them, but it just gets me down."

Kuu nodded, but didn't add anything, waiting for Umi to continue talking.

"I have always really, really liked Clef," Umi explained, "But he's very important here – not that we're not, of course – and I was never convinced that he reciprocated my feelings. He's probably not even meant to have a girlfriend, you know? He's nice to everyone, but sometimes I feel like he looks at me in a different way to the others, and nobody play-fights with Clef like I do," she smiled and shrugged.

"So how did this thing with Ascot come about?" Kuu asked, glad to be getting real answers about this bizarre love polygon.

Umi ran her fingers through her hair, something she did when she was thinking hard about something, "We became friends the first time we came to Cephiro. Ascot was working for Zagato – like Caldina – and we had to fight him, but we made him understand that he could have friends without needing to throw his admittedly really cool powers around. He was just a kid, but I guess he took a shine to me. When we came back, he was as tall as he is now! Caldina said he grew up just for me."

Kuu took a couple of moments to process this, and then said, "Excuse me for saying this, Umi-san, but is it possible that you're partially with Ascot because you feel you owe it to him?"

Umi stopped in front of the main doors to the central hall of the castle, intending to ask around for Lafarga or Lantis, "I think that might be the case. But he is a really sweet boy, he's just not really giving me everything I want at my age. It's almost as if I'd like to publicly be with Ascot – because I'm still not sure Clef would publicly be with anyone in his position – but have a real emotional and physical relationship with Clef, you know?"

Kuu didn't respond this time; she was frozen. Umi retained her firm stare at her friend's sister until she was ready to swallow hard and look where Kuu was looking.

Standing in front of them, having just opened the main doors of the hall on hearing the commotion outside, was none other than Master Mage Clef. The three of them stood staring at each other for what felt like an eternity, before Umi let out a strangled wail and started running in the opposite direction.

She heard both Kuu and Clef call out for her in distress, but she carried on, running back to the room where Hikaru and Fuu would comfort her with hugs, but never learn from her why she was crying so hard.

Kuu returned around half an hour later, opening the door for Lafarga, who was carrying a folded guest bed. She quietly thanked him after he unfolded it and he left, never looking at the others or questioning the poor atmosphere in the room. It wasn't any of his business; he'd discuss it with Caldina when he got back to her.

"He'll talk to you after the wedding, Umi-san," Kuu whispered to Umi after she was reasonably sure Hikaru and her sister were asleep, "It's nothing to worry about, he's not mad at you."

•••

On the morning of her wedding, Hououji Fuu did not wake as early as she normally would. She had spent the night laying next to Umi and Hikaru, worrying about the day ahead of them. When sleep still did not come, she whiled away some of the early hours of the morning staring at the back of Kuu's head, still amazed that someone in her life outside the legend of the Magic Knights had made their way to Cephiro to share this day with her.

Oh god, she was getting _married_.

She was getting married, to a _prince_.

Whispering entered her mind in her world of dreams, and she was just barely aware of a familiar voice saying something about having to wake her soon, and an argument that she looked far too peaceful and that she should be left to it.

Within what felt like seconds, Umi leapt over and gently shook her awake, beaming, "Fuu, I'm sorry, but it's time to get up! You're marring Prince Ferio today! You're setting the standard for all marriages in Cephiro! Isn't that wonderful?"

Fuu mumbled a few words, ran her fingers through her hair - not too tousled, good - and asked, "Are you feeling better, Umi-san?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter today, Fuu."

Kuu was elected to pull her sister out of bed and covertly down the corridors, protected by a wall of Umi, Hikaru, Presea and Caldina, to the baths. The idea was that the baths would hopefully relax Fuu and make her look a little more like she'd had a few more hours of sleep.

"You were so restless last night, Fuu-chan!" Hikaru commented, wringing out her hair, only to let it drop into the water again, "Are you nervous?"

"Nervous doesn't quite begin to describe it, Hikaru-san," Fuu sighed, her empty stomach turning somersaults. She wasn't quite sure whether she was hungry or nauseous.

"It'll all be fine when you walk the plank, my dear!"

Presea shook her head at Caldina, "You're thinking of ' _pilots_ ', Caldina, at weddings you walk 'down the aisle'."

Kuu sniggered, but it went unnoticed by the others, "So, um, Caldina-san, when will be be expecting the princesses from your country? Do you know?"

Caldina beamed at her, "I'm afraid not, honey, but they're usually pretty punctual. This is a lot to take in for your first visit here, ain't it?"

"I bet the guys from Autozam will like Kuu," Umi giggled, "Zazu at least, he loves the ladies. But he's still holding out for Hikaru, I think."

"Kuu-chan and Geo would make a cute couple!" Hikaru said, "We should introduce them!"

"Geo?" Kuu asked, intrigued.

Fuu planted her palm on her forehead, not quite believing that this conversation was happening, but was entertained by the idea of her sister also acquiring a boyfriend from another world, "He's the Lieutenant Commander of Autozam's military, Kuu-oneesama. He's very tall."

"And buff," added Umi, glad Fuu was warming to the conversation.

Presea smiled, "We'll introduce you to him, Kuu, I'm sure he and Zazu would be delighted to meet you."

A little longer in the bath and Fuu found herself being led around the castle again, suspicious that there were no men-folk to be seen. It transpired that Umi had explained the tradition on Earth that the groom is not allowed to see the bride before the ceremony on the day of the wedding, and arrangements had been made to allow the girls to use one half of the circular castle, the guys the other.

"This is all very surreal," Fuu commented, allowing Kuu and Hikaru to help her into her kimono, while Umi waited to take care of her hair. Fuu had insisted on having it loose, as she didn't like the way it looked when it was pulled back. Umi had secretly bought a very beautiful ornamented alice band when she had been absent from the group at the CLAMP School matsuri.

"I have to pay you back for this, Umi-san!" Fuu said, admiring it in the mirror, "This cannot have been an inexpensive present!"

"Consider it a wedding gift from me and Hikaru, Fuu," Umi said, smiling back at Fuu's reflection.

Presea and Caldina watched the four Earth girls practice walking in a bridal train, amused, because nobody had any real plans for the ceremony. There was at least going to be a short walk to the front of the balcony where Clef would be stood to carry out the blessing.

"I'm going to be leading the party," Presea said to Fuu quietly, "So you don't have to worry about when and where to go when the time comes. It's not long now."

"Thank you, Presea-san," Fuu said, even more quietly, flashing the Master Smith the most painted-on smile she had ever seen.

Hikaru wandered over, teetering on her okobo sandals, "Do you need a drink, Fuu-chan? You look a little pale."

Fuu held up a hand, "No, thank you, Hikaru-san. I might throw up if I consume anything more."

Hikaru grinned, unsure of what to say, and simply got out of Fuu's way. They all sat in a very awkward silence until Presea looked out of the window and reached over for Fuu's hand, "It's time, princess-to-be."

Caught off-guard, Fuu was not given as much chance to be as horrified as she could have been, and she simply nodded and followed Presea on auto-pilot.

A balcony at the back of a lower floor of the Castle of Cephiro was the chosen spot for the wedding ceremony. It offered a good vantage point for the guards to keep watch, and it meant that the townspeople and visitors below would have a good view of the proceedings. Fuu tried not to liken the balcony to the one at the Vatican, lest she realise the gravity of the situation.

She was concentrating so hard on putting one foot in front of the other that she didn't realise she was already stood by Ferio before long. Presea patted her hand and let go, taking her place next to Clef as an officiant. Fuu brushed some hair from her face, and she felt familiar white-gloved fingers take her raised hand.

Ferio was dressed in an elaborate white jacket with coattails and red accents, matching slim-fitting red trousers tucked into white boots. There was a red and white taffeta tie in his shirt collar, and finally she came to his face; wearing a traditional smirky smile and looking straight into her soul with his amber eyes.

She didn't flush bright red and she didn't feel the need to faint. She simply smiled and gazed back, squeezing his hands, "You look perfect, Prince."

"And you've never looked more beautiful," Ferio whispered back, "Now, let's make you a princess in name and not just in appearance."

They turned towards Clef and Presea, and Fuu was concentrating so hard on not falling over and twisting her ankle thanks to her her tall okobo that Clef's mouth twitched slightly at her grim expression. As she noticed, she laughed quietly to herself, and gave a reassuring glance to the Master Mage, who smiled and nodded in response.

"Citizens of Cephiro," Clef began, his voice somehow resonating the castle and courtyard below, "Dignitaries from other countries," he nodded to the parties from Autozam, Chizeta and Fahren, "Thank you all for attending the royal marriage of Crown Prince Ferio of New Cephiro to Hououji Fuu, the Magic Knight of Wind."

Caldina's nudging of Kuu's arm and secretive nodding towards the Autozam officials did not escape him unnoticed. Nor did Umi's fixed, adoring gaze on Clef escape Ascot.

"Where did Prince Ferio's outfit come from?" Lantis asked Ascot, aware of the tension, attempting to draw Ascot's attention away.

Ascot turned to the tall swordsman in surprise, "Oh, the seamstresses were up all night making it. We're lucky you and Lafarga have been keeping him so fit with training; he was starting to acquire some weight around his middle since the country has been so peaceful."

"Did Umi make that comment?" Lantis laughed.

"Haha, yeah," Ascot said, and Lantis cursed because he'd just directed Ascot's attention back to the matter at hand.

"Ascot," Lafarga said, laying a hand on the summoner's shoulder, but never taking his eyes off the proceedings, "Whatever's going on, try not to let it show just for today, if you can. It's very special to Prince Ferio and Fuu."

Ascot sighed internally; Caldina had already mentioned that to him earlier that morning. He was grateful that the couple had taken him under their wing, but they were acting too much like the parents of a troublesome teenager; couldn't they see he was an adult now?

"It's fine, Lafarga," Ascot finally said, trying his best to look happy for the first married couple of New Cephiro as they kissed to mark the beginning of their married life.

There was a roaring cheer and applause from the crowd on the balcony and the hundreds of people in the town square. Hikaru was the only person that thought to look up at the sky, almost expecting the portal to Earth to open up and declare it was repaired. She glanced over at Clef, who gave her a wide smile and a nod, suggesting that he thought her suspicions were correct.

Suddenly, just as Hikaru thought the window for highly unlikely events had passed, the sky tore open with blinding light above them, and a tiny round figure with disproportionately large wings descended from the heavens.

" _I have seen the proof of your love for New Cephiro_ ," an authoritative voice boomed, " _and I have seen proof of New Cephiro's love for you, Legendary Magic Knights_."

"It's Mokona!" Hikaru shouted, pointing wildly into the sky, "Fuu-chan, your wedding summoned Mokona back to us!"

Clef and Presea parted in surprise as Mokona landed gently on the balcony between them. There was a long pause, until Mokona treated them all to a very loud, " _Puu!_ "

Oblivious to the silence around him and Clef and Presea's worries about how he'd been treated before they'd realised his status, Mokona turned to Fuu and Ferio, and bounced off the railing towards them. The couple stood in awed silence, not sure what to expect, until a glowing light blossomed in the jewel on Mokona's forehead and suddenly penetrated the very centre of Fuu's chest.

Fuu staggered a little, and Ferio caught her in his arms. She laughed nervously, and said, "If I close my eyes I can see Tokyo, as if I'm floating above the top of the Tower."


	13. Chapter 13

Clef swiftly arrived at the scene, "Are you okay, Princess? It would seem that Mokona has given full control and responsibility of maintaining the portal to you."

"Is that why I feel so bad?" Fuu asked, somewhat rhetorically. She didn't even have the energy to register what Clef had just called her; otherwise, she might have been more excited.

"Fuu-chan! Are you okay? Mokona didn't hurt you, did he?" Hikaru asked, quickly walking over with the creature in question in her arms. Umi, accompanying her, questioned Hikaru bringing the one responsible over, but said nothing.

The girls had talked at length about the craziness of Mokona being the creator of all the worlds - perhaps then also the creator of their world - but they had never expected to see him again. And yet here he was, no different to the day they had met him at Presea's armoury. If one excused his dramatic entrance, that is.

"I'm sure it will turn out to be a good thing," Fuu said, adjusting to the strength of will she had to maintain, and managing to stand on her own, "It would seem that Clef-san was correct, and that our wedding was indeed the best way to help fix the portal. We summoned Mokona to help fix it for us, and this is the way he thinks is the best."

"You can't really expect Fuu to maintain the portal on her own, can you, Mokona?" Umi demanded from the rabbit-like creature, "We've always done everything together, or not at all! I don't care if you're some kind of god, you're still super annoying!"

"Then won't your will combine with Fuu's?" Ferio pointed out, slightly worried by the way Umi spoke to Mokona, never mind how innocuous he looked.

"Puu," Mokona added, though nobody was really sure what he was referring to or saying; even Hikaru.

"Are you staying for the party, Mokona?" Hikaru asked, trying to alleviate the tension on the balcony.

"Puu!" Mokona agreed, and he bounced off back towards the castle doors, no doubt remembering the route to the great dining hall where everyone would soon congregate.

Quite incredulous that nobody was thinking or worrying further about Fuu's condition, Umi asked, "Are we just dropping this, then? I know it's a wedding, but is nobody else worried about how Fuu feels? Ferio?"

"I feel quite okay at the moment, Umi-san," Fuu interjected before Ferio could start responding to her friend, "Should we follow Mokona-san into the dining hall?" she noticed her friend's face, and it wasn't convinced, "Umi-san, I promise you that I'll take it easy. Ferio will look after me and I've no doubt that you and Hikaru-san will too."

"I'm still pissed that he took so much attention away from your wedding," Umi commented quietly to Fuu as they all walked in from the balcony, "It was meant to be the event of Cephiro's history! The first marriage, between the Prince of Cephiro and a Legendary Magic Knight! But no, Mokona came along and took all the attention. That's not cool at all."

Fuu laughed, while Ferio made no comment, "On the contrary, Umi-san, don't you think it will make our wedding even more memorable? The very first wedding in Cephiro, like you said, with two such important people, if I may say so, and then the creator comes down to bless us."

"I'm just glad to see Mokona again!" Hikaru laughed, flapping the long sleeves of her forest green kimono in celebration "And congratulations, Fuu-chan and Ferio!"

"That's Princess Fuu-chan to you, Hikaru," Ferio reminded her, grinning.

Hikaru clapped enthusiastically and took Umi's hand, "Come on, Umi-chan, let's leave the newlyweds alone and check out the food and music."

The two left ahead of them, while Fuu had a little think on her walk there. She was managing to maintain her link to the portal above Tokyo without feeling too drained at the moment. It wasn't ideal given her bad night's sleep - she'd have to remember to take better care of herself from now on - but it was working. Was it possible that everyone else around her was helping her out? What would happen when she went home on her own? Fuu suspected that Kuu might have started to develop a little of a link to the system of will in Cephiro and might help to support her at home, but was that going to be enough?

"What was all that about?" Kuu asked, "Could someone explain what just happened? I was dealing with everything just fine up until the bright light in the sky, and that's very much where I stopped understanding anything that was going on around me."

Fuu turned to look at her sister and smiled, unsure of where to start. Fortunately, she saw Presea and Caldina coming up behind them too, so she motioned to them, and they were happy to take Kuu aside and give her a quick history lesson. Explaining didn't necessarily mean she'd manage to grasp the gravity of what was going on, but it was better than Fuu moving her concentration from the portal. Besides, Caldina wanted to introduce her to a certain Lieutenant Commander from Autozam.

"I'm sorry, Kuu-oneesama! I'll try to explain better when we get home as well," Fuu said apologetically, waving Kuu off with the others. To her surprise, Ferio pulled her to one side to speak to her more privately.

"You are okay, aren't you, Fuu? I mean, you're taking it a bit too well. I agree with Umi, as much as it pains me to say so," Ferio flashed Fuu a half-hearted grin, "We can go and take a little break, if you like. They won't be offended, considering what's happened."

Fuu waved her arm again and said, "No, thank you Ferio. I know you're all worried, but really, I'm going to be okay."

"And everyone thinks Umi is the stubborn Magic Knight," Ferio sighed, taking a better hold on Fuu's hand as they approached the hall where almost every other guest was located.

Caldina greeted them with a flourish and announced, "Congratulations, newlyweds! Welcome to your 'wed-ding re-cep-tion', where the dancing goes on all night and the alcohol supply is endless!"

"Alcohol?" Fuu asked, slightly disappointed, "Why is that appropriate?"

"It's a party, princess! You don't have to partake if you don't want to," Caldina winked, "Now, hurry up, the master mage wants to make his speech and we'd all prefer if he did it before he gets too cranky."

Ferio groaned, "I was afraid of this. Well, Fuu, let's go and get it over with."

Before them was the usual long table that the palace normally presented for communal meals, along with a few smaller tables dotted around for socialising later on in the evening. Fuu was pleased to see that Aska had been seated near to her, as she'd not been able to convince Clef to let just one ally be part of the wedding ceremony; at least she was given space near her on the dining table to catch up.

She noted that Kuu and Umi had been seated to one side of her, while Ferio had Clef and Hikaru on his side. Ascot was seated conspicuously away from Umi, separated by Caldina and Lafarga. She was glad; she wanted the mandatory meetings to be as comfortable as they could for her friend while her heart was troubled by the choices she had to make.

As Fuu and her prince took their seats at the table, Clef stood and cleared his throat. Fuu did a double-take, as did everyone else at the table; particularly Umi. Clef now stood at least Ferio's height, and had adjusted his physical age appropriately. There was a stunned silence, and Clef took this as a sign that he could commence his speech.

"Some of you will be aware that I have known Prince Ferio since his birth. While he was in my care as a child, he was impeccably behaved, just like his sister. I'm sure that this was her influence, as he became quite the stubborn character when released from our company under her wishes," Clef looked sideways, and read the expression on the couples' faces, "But we won't dwell on the reasoning for that, aside from being thankful that it brought the lovely Fuu to Cephiro, along with her friends Hikaru and Umi. One could really say that it was because of the late Princess Emeraude's actions that these two came to be together. And I could not be more happy for them, even if just because Princess Fuu will keep Crown Prince Ferio in check for me."

There was some appreciative laughter, and Clef held up his hand to silence everyone again.

"Now, in all seriousness, I am immensely happy for the two of you and I give you my blessing, on behalf of everyone in New Cephiro, from our allied countries of Autozam, Chizeta and Fahren, and from places beyond. I can therefore announce this wedding reception open! Please help yourself to any food and beverages you please, ask our servers if there is anything you require, and please, enjoy the evening."

While Fuu feared there might be some equivalent to cheesy party music in this world, the music was thankfully a mix of traditional and modern music from Cephiro and the three surrounding countries. The Magic Knights were amused to find that the music from Autozam was indeed quite similar to a lot of music that was popular on Earth, although they weren't able to understand any of the few lyrics.

Fuu found that she did in fact end up drinking some of that alcohol, as did everyone else at the party, with few exceptions. She had grown suspicious that some of the serving staff were being encouraged to push it on everyone, although gradually became less and less annoyed about this fact, and better at staying upright on her okobo.

She and Ferio were having a grand time demonstrating what they clearly believed to be the world's best ballroom dance moves. As Ferio swung her around, she tried to take in what was going on around her; Hikaru pulling both Lantis and Eagle onto the dancefloor, her sister Kuu shyly asking Geo for a dance, and Umi sat in the corner between Clef and Ascot, talking to Clef while maintaining a halfhearted hold on Ascot's hand.

"Umi-chan!" Hikaru called, swinging Lantis and Eagle with more force than either of them were expecting, "You should come up and dance!"

"Not now, Hikaru," Umi responded, lifting her hand from Ascot's to wave her off.

Ascot stood very suddenly and with purpose, almost knocking his chair over. However, he didn't become flustered and try to right it as he usually would, "Are you here at this party with me, Umi, or are you here as Guru Clef's companion?"

The music did not grind to a halt in the cliche manner everyone expected, but everyone stopped and stood silently to watch the situation unfold. Umi was horrified that she'd somehow managed to cause a scene at her best friend's royal wedding, but she said, quietly and apologetically, "I don't understand what you mean, Ascot."

"Let's not do this here, Ascot, please," Clef said gently.

A sudden rush of reality came to Ascot as he realised the situation he was in and exactly what he was doing in it. He put on his best poker face and slowly walked away with Lafarga trailing behind - the swordsman hadn't had to deal with his unofficial adoptive son acting like this before, though he'd had his fears earlier in the day.

"Don't go after him," Clef advised, as Umi stood up instinctively.

"But Clef, it looks like I've broken up with him."

There was a long pause between them, during which time the music slowly started up again, and the bystanders went back to enjoying the party, too full of good food and alcohol to focus their attention for too long.

"Is that so far from what you want, Umi?" Clef asked.

"At this point, I don't know what I want, but I certainly won't be talking about it now and ruining this beautiful wedding" Umi said, and she marched across the dancefloor to snatch Hikaru from her two gentlemen.

Fuu watched her two friends over Ferio's shoulder for a few minutes until she was sure that Umi was feeling okay. She wasn't annoyed about the disruption like she thought she should be, but she was slightly disappointed that Umi hadn't managed to resolve the issue with all the time she'd had before the wedding.

"She'll be fine," Ferio said quietly in her ear. Fuu could tell from the sound of his words that he was contentedly smiling.

Fuu giggled, "And to think she was mad at Mokona for taking the attention at our wedding. Are you sure something won't happen?"

"This is Ascot we're talking about," Ferio reminded her, "He wouldn't start a real confrontation with Clef. How lucky Umi is to have two men interested in her, though."

"I don't think she considers it lucky, in particular," Fuu chuckled somewhat sadly, then reconsidered Ferio's words, "Wait, are you saying Clef actually has feelings for her?"

Ferio laughed and pulled back from her to look at her face - no, she wasn't joking, it turned out. "Fuu, it's the worst-kept secret in New Cephiro Castle. Clef is just oblivious that we've all realised."

"I'm glad, but it just makes me worry for Ascot."

"Let's stop worrying about other people and enjoy the rest of our day, okay, Fuu?"

The two of them danced for a little while longer, before retiring again to a table at the side of the room, where they ate and drank with their friends. Ascot and Lafarga were nowhere to be seen, but they thought nothing of it until later.

The evening went on with little in the way of notable occurences, Mokona sitting happily in Hikaru's lap as she, Umi and Fuu discussed and explained the ways of Tokyo with their foreign friends once again. Clef was ever intrigued by the educational system, and Fuu was explaining it with great vigor and enthusiasm in her inebriated state - her plans for the university she wished to attend, what she was going to study, and how high her grades needed to be in order to get there.

While Hikaru and Umi were questioning her on whether they could get into that particular institution too, and pointing out that she should be spending her married life learning things more important to Cephiro than real-world mathematics, computer science and politics, Clef excused himself from the table to search out some non-alcoholic beverages and begin the alcohol recovery process - something that hadn't yet been cured by the simple power of will, herbal infusions, or healing magic.

As he was halfway across the room, there was some shouting, some rapid and heavy footsteps, and suddenly he was on the floor nursing his face.

At the same moment, Fuu realised that her sister had a much lower alcohol tolerance than her - given that she herself had been drinking in Cephiro for some time - because Kuu, having had a front row seat for the whole ordeal, stood up, pointed accusingly towards the offender, and shouted, " _You can't punch a child!_ "

There was a strange strangled noise from the floor, and Lantis was the first to take action and check that Clef was okay, but it turned out that the master mage was giggling at Kuu's comment.

"Oh dear," Clef said, pinching his nose in case it was bleeding, "I do suppose I ought to look like a real adult if I were to make the best of this situation and pursue a romance, don't you think, Lantis?"

"I think you're drunk, Guru," was all Lantis could offer, not sure whether to be amused or worried. He looked up, to see the wildly distressed face of Ascot, still holding his hand in a fist in the same position.

Lafarga caught up to them, Caldina approaching from another angle in a kind of pincer movement. The dancer took Ascot's hand and lowered it, patting the sore knuckles, and with a gentle push in the small of his back, led him away from the party without another word. Lafarga turned to Lantis, and they exchanged a glance that evidently meant something to them, and then the captain of the guard was gone.

"Ascot won't be joining us for the rest of the evening," Lantis advised, and he eyed Umi carefully as he helped Clef to his feet. Presea was quick to drag a chair over to prop him up on, and joined Lantis in his silent interrogation of Umi.

Umi stared very hard at the table, as if it were suddenly going to develop the ability to spell out an answer to her, "I don't... I'm sorry... this must be all my fault," she turned to Fuu suddenly, tears welling up in her eyes, "Fuu, I'm so sorry, and Ferio, this is your wedding, and I-"

Ferio laughed and patted Umi's hand, "Umi, really, it's not a wedding without a fight, is it?"

"You've never had a wedding before," Hikaru pointed out, sliding over to join Lantis and check if Clef was okay.

"Exactly!" Ferio said, "and now a good punch-up is the tradition at the wedding party."

"Are you okay, Clef-san?" Fuu asked quietly, leaning to get a better view of the Master Mage, whose face was very red, and was still pinching his nose despite the futility of the act; there was no blood, but he was likely to sport a very large bruise the next day.

Clef raised his arm so he could look at her, and he gave her the most genuine smile he could muster, despite the pain starting to set in, "It's no problem at all, Princess. You and Prince Ferio should retire for the evening to relax - I think this party is over."

***

With Fuu's help, the orbs in Ferio's room had been configured to glow gently as the sun rose outside New Cephiro Castle. The Magic Knight in question was just starting to regret this, as she rolled out of bed with the worst kind of feeling in her stomach.

The morning had become very uncomfortable for her, as she couldn't shake the projection of Tokyo from atop the towering landmark, whether she was asleep or awake. She hadn't tried sleeping with her eyes open, but she wasn't sure that would help either - she was just going to have to get used to it and hopefully stop feeling dizzy, especially when she was immensely hung over. More than she'd expected to be by any real measure, too.

"I still love you, Fuu!" Ferio called helpfully from the bedroom, as Fuu commenced her first full day as Princess of New Cephiro by emptying her stomach into what passed as a toilet in their world.

"That's very reassuring, thank you, Ferio," Fuu replied abruptly, although she was glad that he'd made a sort of joke instead of drawing attention to how embarrassed she was. She took a long drink from a tumbler in the bathroom, washed her face with cold water, and then climbed back into bed. "I do hope the others aren't suffering as much. And - oh, gosh, what about Clef-san? And Ascot-san? And Umi-san?"

Ferio shuffled over and put his arm around her, only for Fuu to freeze up, as she realised she was naked from the waist up, and so was he.

"Wh- wh- wh-- Ferio, where is my nightshirt?" Fuu squinted, as was the quirk she'd acquired when trying to adjust her vision through will, and to her horror she saw some little square foil packets on the floor where her kimono had been discarded the night before. "What are _those_ doing here? Did we--"

"No," Ferio said firmly, and he pulled the sheet up around Fuu's shoulders in the hope that it would calm her down. "Whatever those are. Are they edible?"

For the first time that morning, Fuu cracked a smile, and she sniggered, "No, those definitely aren't edible."


	14. Chapter 14

Umi and Hikaru emerged from their bedroom a little earlier than Fuu was even awake, feeling a little less worse for wear, though at least one of them was worried about the events that had transpired the night before. The palace was almost silent, with the exception of a few maids tidying some of the empty rooms - how there were empty rooms given the size of the party was beyond the two Magic Knights - and mopping the big marble-floored hallways and chambers.

They walked a long way - Umi had asked Hikaru to take her to the docking bay of the castle, where she thought the sunrise might have the best view. It was at the direct opposite end of the castle to Ferio's suite, which meant they were in the least likely position to bother Fuu and Ferio at all. They didn't want to do that. No, Umi thought, they'd probably like to enjoy each other's company a bit. She smirked a little behind Hikaru as she considered what might have gone down last night after they retired to his quarters.

Hikaru suddenly held her hand up, and Umi stopped obediently without even thinking. Hikaru shushed her - which Umi found quite hilarious, since Hikaru was easily the loudest of the three - and nodded towards the corner they had been about to turn.

Ascot was there, stood at the loading ramp for the NSX, having a very polite but heated conversation with Eagle, Geo and Zazu. Umi couldn't make out what they were saying, and neither could Hikaru by the looks of it, but she assumed he was asking to go with them.

"Should I stop him?" Umi asked Hikaru in a hushed voice, but Hikaru just looked at her sort of sadly, and Umi misread this as a cue to march right out there and apologise to Ascot.

"Umi-chan, no!" Hikaru shouted, her little voice carrying across the large, cavernous entryway, and alerting Eagle, Ascot, and the other Autozamians to Umi's presence.

Ascot tensed and started to run away, but Geo grabbed him with a swiftness unexpected of a man of his size, and forced him to stay, stating that he couldn't exactly join them if he was just going to bolt at the sight of a lady coming to confront him.

"Ascot, I'm sorry, I wanted to come and talk to you. I mean, I'm sure I can't stop you from leaving. I just wanted to try and explain myself... and this whole thing with Clef."

"Do you want us to leave, Ascot?" Geo asked.

"No," Ascot said, hiding his eyes beneath his hair, but staring down at Umi from behind it, "If she wants to talk to me, she can say what she has to say in front of you and Hikaru."

Hikaru decided to join Umi at this point, feeling like she might need some emotional support. She placed an arm around Umi's shoulders - or at least tried to, and settled for her waist. Umi was appreciative, but she was uneasy, and so were the crew of the NSX.

"Ascot," Umi said, becoming acutely aware that her mouth had gone dry and she was starting to feel very sick, "Ascot, I never meant to hurt you. I have been confused for months and months over who I should choose, and I should have spoken to you about it sooner. I haven't been able to sleep for ages, and I've just been trying to look happy throughout this whole royal wedding thing for Fuu's sake. But I love you, and I love Clef, and I'll never be able to decide. I thought you were the right choice, selfishly, because he would never have the time for me, and I would prefer to give my love to someone who could give it back. But I failed that too. I'm sorry. It went too far."

Hikaru patted Umi's back reassuringly, while Ascot stood emotionless between them and the men from Autozam.

"That's what I gathered," Ascot said, trying to keep his voice strong, but faltering a little bit, "It just made me so angry that there might be someone else, but at the same time I accepted it. And then I thought, I couldn't possibly compete with Clef, he's my mentor and he's technically in charge of my role here. I need to get away, for both you and I. You can find out what life is like with Clef, and I can go away and become stronger. I want to become stronger, Umi, even stronger than I've become in our New Cephiro, and even since you three helped Princess Emeraude. I have to do this for me, so please don't stop me."

Umi was starting to cry, and Hikaru decided to act on impulse. Umi had forgotten how much upper body strength Hikaru had until she shoved her forcefully in the small of her back, right into Ascot's arms.

An awkward sort of hug commenced, until they finally settled into a deep and tearful one. Some words were exchanged, too quiet to hear, and too much respect was felt by the would-be eavesdroppers to make an effort. Finally, Umi and Ascot released each other, and he departed, walking up the ramp with Zazu while Eagle and Geo remained to say goodbye to everyone later in the day. Eagle and Geo quietly and politely said goodbye to the girls and walked back off towards the guest bedrooms to get a few more hours sleep before everyone else awoke, leaving them standing in the docking bay.

Umi stood sniffling quietly, Hikaru softly still patting her back. They watched in silence as Zazu deposited the FTO and the GTO in the lobby, no doubt in just the right position for someone else to bump their ship into later. Hikaru smiled fondly at the thought of Zazu loving his job on the NSX, but then turned to Umi, and asked, "Are you okay, Umi-chan?"

This caused Umi to burst into tears again, the last of the ones she'd been holding in for so long, and Hikaru quickly stepped in to give her a tight hug. Umi held her tight in return - she needed this. She needed this cry.

"Let's go to the baths, Umi-chan, it will make us feel better, and there shouldn't be anyone else there at this time of the morning," Hikaru looked at her analogue watch, which she'd put on out of habit, and the hands were simply flying in all directions, "Whatever time it is right now, anyway. Do you think Fuu-chan will invent a watch for Cephiro when she comes to live here?"

Umi laughed half-heartedly, "Maybe, Hikaru. She's very clever."

"Do you think she's pregnant now, Umi-chan?"

Umi turned and started at Hikaru. Hikaru stopped in her tracks. There was an extremely long pause, and then Umi burst out laughing. The laughing was genuine and quite loud, and went on just long enough for Hikaru to start worrying about her friend's state of mind, but Umi held up a hand until she was one, "Don't ever change, Hikaru. Don't ever stop saying things like that, it's wonderful."

"But..."

"No, do you really think Fuu would let that happen? She's got high school and university to finish first, right?"

"But Ferio isn't going to wait for that long... is he?"

Umi thought about this as they started walking towards the baths again, "No, you're probably right there."

"They could always use those condoms Kuu-chan snuck into Fuu-chan's kimono sleeve."

Umi snorted, and then held her hand up to her mouth, "Condoms? In her kimono sleeve? Did she have them in there for the whole ceremony?" she cackled again when Hikaru confirmed her suspicions with a nod, "Oh my _god_ , that's priceless. Fuu will be so mad."

Hikaru laughed along with her now, and they continued their walk to the baths with their arms linked, only to find they would be accompanied by Mokona for the duration of the bath.

"Is it normal to be naked in front of a god, Umi-chan?" Hikaru whispered, unwilling to drop her towel, although she hadn't been before when they'd soaked with Mokona previously.

"If he's like any other god, Hikaru, he can see us naked any time he wants, let's be realistic here." Umi reminded her, and she stepped down into the water herself. "Besides, it's Mokona, it's no worse than changing in front of a Furby."

"What's a Furby, Umi-chan?" Hikaru asked, "Is it a kind of domesticated animal? A tropical bird, or something?"

Umi gave Hikaru another incredulous stare, too surprised to laugh, and left the question unanswered.

They were joined later by Presea and Caldina, who had noticed Ascot's absence, but hadn't mentioned it to them. Umi expected Caldina, as Ascot's surrogate mother, to be mad at her, but Caldina clearly realised that Ascot was acting of his own volition and her was certainly big enough and old enough to make those decisions for himself. She'd spent half an hour that morning trying to convince Lafarga not to go looking for him.

"Do you think he'll write, Umi?" Caldina asked, scrubbing her arms and not meeting her eyes at the moment.

"I'm sure he will, Caldina. You and Lafarga have been very good to him. More than good to him, I might even say."

Caldina now met Umi's eyes, and they shared a very tearful moment, and then broke into nervous quiet laughter. Presea and Hikaru looked on with concerned expressions, but then decided it best not to interfere. Hikaru asked permission to braid Presea's hair and she happily allowed her to do so, allowing them to remove themselves from the other conversion.

"I realise it would be inappropriate to hug you right now, darlin'," Caldina said to Umi, "But as soon as we're dry and dressed up, we're having the biggest hug, alright? He might well be my adopted son, but you're my friend, and I know you wouldn't hurt him on purpose. You must be hurting too."

"We made up," Umi said quietly, and Hikaru knew that she would be welling up. Caldina placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and nodded knowingly. Umi washed her face in the water and tried to perk up, "He's gonna come back a different person, Caldina. He'll be so much better than me and he'll deserve better than me."

"Don't say that, Umi," Presea interjected, shaking her head gently, while Hikaru held on to her hair as if her life depended on it, "We often forget that you're still young, even if you are the Legendary Magic Knights."

It was true - they knew that they were treated like mature adults when discussions were held in the palace, and when they were addressed publicly, and when they met with the townspeople. They had held up this image of themselves, but they found it difficult and overwhelming, carefully rehearsing every possible situation together.

"We'll be the people everyone wants us to be in a few years," Hikaru decided out loud.

•••

Ferio and Fuu had sobered up quite quickly with some cold water from the bathroom, and had now clothed themselves, quietly running barefoot down the cold marble halls to find the kitchens. The staff were already starting to prepare breakfast, but the ladies all smiled and swooned as Ferio entered the kitchen, and allowed him and Fuu to take what they liked from the serving trays and help themselves to the fruit juices and spring water in the larders.

"Is there something like tea in New Cephiro, Ferio?"

"Tea?" Ferio asked through a mouthful of pastry.

Fuu nodded, and she started gesticulating, "We have tea plants on Earth, you take the leaves and dry them, and then you brew them in hot water to make a drink. In my country of Japan, we primarily drink green tea, which is good for digestion and health, and a lot of countries drink black tea as an everyday drink. Does it sound familiar?"

Ferio set his pastry down in a completely inappropriate place in the pantry and went rummaging in a corner. He held up a package with some Cephiran script neatly written on it, and he said, "Something like this? Get one of the cooks to boil you some water. There might even be some on the go at the moment, it's warm in there."

He rattled the package as he handed it to Fuu, and she heard something dry rustling in there. She opened the little paper bag carefully and inhaled the scent, smiling, "Yes, I think this is like rooibos tea, since it smells smoky. It will do nicely. Is this all you have?"

Ferio shrugged, and then went about relocating his pastry, "We tried it, it didn't really catch on in the castle, and so it fell out of fashion in New Cephiro Castle Town too. I think people in the villages pick and dry a lot. We could go out and get some one day. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to have a visit from their new princess."

Fuu smiled coyly, and turned to go back into the kitchen. She located a young lady boiling water on the stove and asked if she could please have a cup full, and was served some with a smile from a ladle. At first, the girl had offered her an intricately decorated porcelain cup, but Fuu shook her head and asked politely for something more primitive, perhaps. She settled with an earthenware tumbler without a handle, and sat in the corner of the kitchen quietly sipping what passed for tea in Cephiro. It was okay. It wasn't quite the same, but she could get used to it.

Ferio went to sit next to her, eating yet something else from the kitchen, while the female staff glanced over and smiled at the two of them, giggling amongst themselves and chatting cheerfully. Ferio didn't seem to notice much of this, but leaned towards Fuu and asked, "So, is it any good?"

Fuu nodded, and said, "It's not quite the same as it is at home, but it's nice. Do you want to try some?"

He took the tumbler from her and took rather a larger sip than he should have, and Fuu couldn't help but laugh at the face he made, which bordered between apathy and distaste. He eventually swallowed his mouthful, and handed the tumbler back to her before cramming more food in to get rid of the dull non-taste.

Several of the women had witnessed this and therefore one of them was on hand with a glass of very red fruit juice, which Ferio downed almost in one go. He thanked her with a smile, and she curtseyed and rushed off looking flustered. Fuu didn't feel it was necessary to be jealous - some of these women probably knew Ferio from when he was a small child, and the others would no doubt have heard all sorts of stories about his childhood from the older ones.

Fuu wondered what life would have been like in the castle when Ferio and Emeraude were small. She imagined - plus some small illustrations in her mind from stories Ferio had told her - that Emeraude had always known and appreciated her duty as Pillar of Cephiro, and had always strived to be a pure, polite, well-presented and well-behaved young lady. Ferio, meanwhile, had been quite the litte rascal, consistently defying Clef but always being obedient to a fault when Emeraude asked him helplessly to behave himself.

"What are you getting all nostalgic about over there?" Ferio asked, having started on the fruit bowl that the maids were trying to prepare, and he was almost eating slices of fruit faster than the four of them could continue to cut and display them.

Fuu slapped his hand playfully, and nodded to the women, "Ferio, stop that, they're trying so hard to make a lovely breakfast for us and you're making it very difficult for them. I'm just wondering what it would have been like to grow up here with you and Emeraude."

He smiled as he put the last slice of fruit - honest - into his mouth. He chewed it for a bit, before saying, "I think you and Emeraude would have gotten along really well. I probably would have hated you for being so well-behaved, though."

"How do you know I was well-behaved as a child?" Fuu asked, that wicked smile on her face that he loved so much.

Ferio returned that smile with a mildly condescending one that said _really?_

She laughed, and passed her empty tumbler to a passing member of staff, "You're not wrong. Kuu-oneesama and I always wanted to please our parents, so we were always immaculately behaved. I think Hikaru-san would be the same, because of her family and her training, but I think Umi-san was probably a nightmare to look after. Maybe they bribed her to behave. Her parents are politicians, so they would have wanted her to be good when they had to take her to events, I'm sure."

Ferio watched Fuu carefully, and then watched the realisation dawn on her face as she finished thinking about Umi and the night before.

"I have to find Umi-san!" Fuu said with purpose, and she bolted out of the kitchen and down the corridor.

"Your highness, Miss Umi is in the baths with Miss Hikaru, Pharle Presea and Miss Caldina," one of the women mentioned to Ferio on his way out of the kitchen to follow her, and he hurriedly gave his sincere thanks and started chasing after her.

Fuu was fast, he realised, and they'd never really competed before because she didn't agree with that kind of thing in a relationship - he'd always battled against Hikaru, who had a similar fighting style to him, and her little legs didn't exactly make her the fastest runner. It turned out that Fuu was a surprisingly high scoring distance runner in her school, and Ferio started to find it hard to keep up with her stamina.

"Fuu!" Ferio shouted helplessly, "They're in the baths, take a left!"

She executed a very beautiful twirl in thanking him, although she miscalculated it slightly and fell on her ankle, much to Ferio's horror, only to have Umi and Hikaru come upon her at the junction towards the baths.

"Oh my god, Fuu-chan, are you okay?" Hikaru asked, flopping down onto the floor to attend to her.

Fuu forced a smile, "I'll be okay, Hikaru-san!" she looked up, "Umi-san, how are you feeling this morning?"

Umi gave her a weak smile, and offered her hand - Ferio still hadn't caught up, "I'm doing okay, Fuu. I spoke to Ascot before he left."

"He left?" Fuu asked, bewildered, "Where did he go?"

Umi and Hikaru hoisted Fuu up onto their shoulders for support just as Ferio got to them and started fussing over her. He took over the lift from Hikaru, meaning Fuu had a slightly more even height to support herself on.

"He's going back to Autozam with Eagle, Geo and Zazu," Hikaru explained, "He wants to spend some time in their military like Lantis did. He thinks he needs some time out from Cephiro and he wants to give Umi-chan some space."

Ferio looked surprised, "Ascot? I should speak to him. That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"Let him, go, Ferio, it's for the best," Umi pleaded, craning her neck past Fuu's face so she could see him as she spoke to him, "I don't want him to think I sent you, either."

"The military in Autozam will break the poor boy," Ferio said, looking concerned.

"And if it doesn't, it will make him much stronger," Umi said, "And that's what Ascot wants, so I don't think we should interfere with his wishes. He'll be looked after by the best in the military, I don't see what could go wrong."

"Don't say that, Umi-san."

Umi went quiet, but they took Fuu to the dining room at her request regardless, and sat her in a new seat that had been placed next to Ferio's regal chair. It was a little shorter than his, but no less elegant, and she realised that it had been carved especially for her, to match.

"I guess this is yours, Princess Fuu-chan!" Hikaru announced happily, "It's so pretty! Isn't it, Umi-chan?"

"It certainly is," Umi said with a smile, "How does it feel? I notice it has a cushion. I'm extremely jealous."

Fuu ran her hands down the arms and shifted in the seat, and she looked at Umi and beamed, "It's wonderfully comfortable, Umi-san. I'm sure some of the staff could fashion you with a cushion on your dining chair if you so desired. You are a Legendary Magic Knight, after all. That's surely _almost_ as good as royalty."

"I'll arrange it, if Lady Umi desires so," Ferio said, and he mocked her with a curtsey, which Hikaru found hysterical, and Umi simply smirked at.

"Maybe Lady Hikaru would like one too," Umi suggested, turning a raised eyebrow to Hikaru.

Hikaru nodded, "Maybe Lady Hikaru would indeed, Lady Umi-chan."

Eventually everyone filed in for breakfast, Ferio did indeed make good on his word to get cushions for Umi and Hikaru, and they were suitably embarrassed when the prince delivered them himself. Hikaru seated herself next to Ferio with Lantis, and Umi and Clef on the other side with Fuu, and the meal began, nobody in the great hall mentioning the conspicuous absence of Ascot.

Fuu noticed Umi and Clef talking in quiet mumbles next to her, but she tried her best not to eavesdrop. She was more amused by Ferio sighing loudly because he no longer had room for food since his rifling through the kitchens earlier, and in fact the running had at one point made him feel quite nauseous, so he had actually gone back to one of the kitchen staff and asked them to make him some of the tea Fuu had discovered earlier. He had to admit that it was making him feel a little less queasy, and so everyone else demanded some, only to find out that there was very little left in the storecupboard because it was not in high demand.

Fuu then loudly asked Kuu how she had enjoyed her evening dancing with Geo, whom she was seated next to, and Eagle also gave his comrade a nudge in the ribs. Both Kuu and Geo stuttered and declined to answer, causing raucous laughter from the table, whilst Presea tried to comfort poor Kuu form her seat next to her.

During this commotion, Umi and Clef slipped away with their breakfasts bundled up in their lavish cloth napkins, and they took their conversation out to one of the public balconies towards the back of the castle, near Ferio's suite. They figured that they would not be disturbed there, and they sat on the railings eating the food they had acquired from the table.

"So, Umi, what is the forward course of action here?" Clef asked, and Umi noted that he was perhaps the most polite eater she'd ever seen.

She shrugged a little, but she knew it wouldn't be a suitable answer, "Well, Clef, I was hoping that we could give it a couple of weeks, maybe, out of respect for my relationship with Ascot, and then we could try being together and see how that works. And if it doesn't work, I'll have to see if Ascot still likes me when he gets home."

Clef didn't know how to take what she was saying, so he asked, "Are you saying that you must have one of us, but you don't mind which?"

"No, it's not that... it's that I love both of you, and I can't have both of you, but I'd rather have one of you than neither of you."

Clef finished eating his healthy breakfast of fruit and carefully folded his napkin before carefully articulating his next words, "Umi, you don't have to be with someone from this world just because Fuu and Hikaru have found love here. You shouldn't force it just because you don't want to be alone. I'm sure there are many fine young men on Earth who _aren't_ almost eight hundred years old."

"Nobody on Earth, _nothing_ on Earth is good enough after you've been to Cephiro, Clef," Umi said quietly and sadly.


	15. Chapter 15

Tearful goodbyes were had in the loading bay, and even more tearful goodbyes were had in the throne room as the girls realised it was more than time they departed to go back to Tokyo and face real life again. Kuu was afraid that she'd never get to visit New Cephiro again, but Clef and the Prince assured her that they'd love to have her back sometime, and that she was always welcome.

"Hikaru, are you quite done kissing Lantis and ready to go back?" Umi called, mentally guessing at how long it would take for Lantis's relationship with Hikaru to cause him irreparable musculoskeletal damage.

"Sorry Umi-chan!" Hikaru yelled at them, giving Lantis one last big kiss and then whispering something extremely private in his ear before galloping back over to the group assembled in the middle of the room. "Let's go! School awaits, and all that, I guess!"

Fuu locked eyes with Ferio and flashed him her best brave smile, acutely aware of the ring on her left hand, with which she also held Kuu's hand. She'd subtly figured out how to arrange themselves so she wouldn't be holding Umi's hand with that one - it would feel unnecessarily cruel to trouble her with her relationship when Umi was having so much trouble with her love life.

"Fuu-san, we're not going anywhere," Kuu said, squeezing her sister's left hand.

Fuu snapped out of her daze and looked at Kuu, "What?"

"You're in charge of the portal now, Fuu," Umi reminded her, swinging her friend's right hand gently to reinforce her point.

Fuu looked at Hikaru, who smiled and nodded, and added, "You can do it, Fuu-chan! We'll believe with you. You just have to really concentrate on putting us back on the Tokyo Tower where we were before."

"Okay," Fuu said, nervous, "Okay, let's all go together. On three," She closed her eyes, and so did the others, "One, two, three!"

She'd forgotten that closing her eyes would cause her to see the vertigo-inducing vision of the portal above the Tokyo Tower, and did not preempt that this might change into the Tokyo Tower rushing at her with great force and velocity when they wanted to travel back to it. Fuu screamed loudly, alarming the others for a split second, but they somehow all landed safely back on the observation deck with little incident.

"That's going to take some getting used to," Fuu sighed, opening her eyes and looking around at her friends and her sister, "I'm sorry if I scared you. To tell the truth, I was pretty scared myself."

"We could tell," Umi laughed, and then she asked the question all of them wanted to ask, "Fuu, what can you see now when you close your eyes?"

"Yeah, Fuu-chan, can you see New Cephiro now? Maybe, from above the place where we landed that time? Aueria-by-the-Sea?"

"Oh, I don't know!" Fuu said, and with that, she closed her eyes, and she concentrated. Hikaru was right - she had a beautiful view of the castle and New Cephiro Castle Town in the distance, and she smiled.

Kuu shook her arm, "Don't keep us in suspense, Fuu-san!"

Umi smiled and folded her arms, "She can totally see New Cephiro. She's got that smile."

"Ahhhh, I'm so jealous!" Hikaru squealed, flailing her arms around and only succeeding in batting some people nearby with her kimono sleeves.

They collected more complimentary food from the staff serving around the Tower. Drinks, too, despite their large breakfast this morning. They finally came to rest on the railing in the area they normally met up - minus Kuu, of course.

The four of them looked out over the city of Tokyo, and all of them felt a bit wistful.

"Nothing really matches up to New Cephiro, does it?" Kuu asked, a hint of sadness and resignation in her voice, and she turned from the windows to look around the tower, "Sure, we have technology, science, medicine...electricity, but... it's not New Cephiro, is it?"

"We have magic in New Cephiro," Fuu said, looking down at her hands, "Here, I'm powerless to help anyone when they get injured or sick. It's extremely frustrating."

"Imagine how amazing I would be in the fire brigade here if I could use my magic!" Umi added, twirling her own hands in the way she would normally summon a water dragon. "And Hikaru... well, she'd..."

"I could have a wonderful career as a stove and candle lighter, yes, Umi-chan!" Hikaru laughed, "I know my magic is just for destruction and heating. It's okay. I like it. It suits me."

"What would my magic be?" Kuu asked, looking down at her own hands.

The three girls looked at her quizzically, and then Hikaru piped up, "I don't know, Kuu-chan, we were given magic because we're the Legendary Magic Knights. There are people in New Cephiro who can't use magic. Ferio, for example."

"Ferio can't use magic?" Kuu asked, her own lamentations forgotten.

Fuu nodded, "Yes, Clef did his best to teach him when he was younger, but he never paid attention. Then he lived in the Forest of Silence for a great many years, which is where magic spells don't work, so even if he did know how to use magic, it wouldn't have been of any use, and he wouldn't have been able to practice it. Now he thinks he's too old to learn it, and he pretty much refuses to be taught."

Ferio had indeed been very touchy about the subject of magic, despite being in awe of what Fuu was able to cast and produce. He had seemed a little peeved that Fuu and her friends had been granted magic powers by Clef the way they had, at the age of fourteen, the age at which he believed he was a lost cause for magic. But Fuu had sensed this and explained that she thought he had simply given them Cephiran powers and accelerated their skills as if they had been magic users their whole lives. Ferio begrudgingly accepted this eventually. Besides, how would they have helped out Princess Emeraude and survived so long in Cephiro without the use of magic? They might have been taken out by Alcione in the first battle with her. Fuu wouldn't have been able to rescue Hikaru and Umi from Caldina, as well.

The girls were still refreshed from their large breakfast in New Cephiro, their long sleep post-party, and their recent refreshments in the Tokyo Tower, so they opted to stay until just an hour before closing time, sharing stories of their friendship with reporters, well wishing residents and news presenters, hoping that they would be able to take some pictures of the broadcast later and take them to New Cephiro with them to prove they had been on national television. Kuu was mostly impressed with how they managed to embellish the story of their meeting and how they had bonded over a mutual appreciation of the Tokyo Tower and its symbolism to them, and make it feel real and soulful for the television. She was happy to let them have the spotlight, and managed to chip in with "I'm Fuu-san's older sister" towards the end, waving to the camera, hoping that her parents and friends would see her. Of course, the other three rewarded her with hugs, saying that it was Kuu who helped them get tickets to come to the opening, and they owed her a lot.

Finally, they started to become tired, and they started walking to the Shiba-Koen metro station next to Tokyo Tower to start their commutes home. It was obviously a day for kimono, because they weren't the only ones wearing them that evening, and they didn't feel out of place. Well, no more out of place than normal, anyway.

Kuu was starting to feel a little bit the way the girls did, and she was just beginning to understand why Fuu had seemed so detached the whole time she had been back from Cephiro and then between her trips to New Cephiro. She felt no sense of place any more, that Tokyo was surreal and unwelcoming since returning from the green and beautiful land from that morning, even though she thought she'd had more than enough time to adjust in the Tokyo Tower.

The stops flew by on the metro, and they lost Hikaru and Umi at the large line interchange of Otemachi. The four of them felt lethargic and tired at this point, and they could tell in the way they waved goodbye half-heartedly to each other. Umi waved her phone at Fuu as the metro pulled away, and they kept up a dialogue with both Hikaru and Umi while they completed their solo journeys on their separate lines.

Fuu sighed and laid her head on her older, slightly taller sister's shoulder, and Kuu reciprocated by resting her head against Fuu's. Kuu drifted off; Fuu continued sending mails to Umi and Hikaru to keep herself awake.

There was still a ten minute walk ahead of them at the other end of the line, in order to get to their house. Luckily much of it was within the semi-gated community they lived in, so it wasn't a dangerous part of town - it just looked like a marathon to the girls when they got there.

"I'll phone father," Kuu said in resignation, looking at Fuu, who was visibly unsure about walking all the way home in her ornamental sandals. Although she had mastered walking in them, they weren't exactly designed for distance, and she couldn't recall how she'd made her way all the way there a few days ago. No, wasn't it that morning? Nobody could be sure any more.

Mr Hououji appeared not long after the phone call in his luxury car, smiling at his beloved daughters, who rarely made a request to have him pick them up, even though he'd drop anything in the world to do absolutely anything for them.

"Why so tired, girls?" he asked, adjusting the rear view mirror to see them slumped together in their squishy leather seats in the back.

Fuu sighed, "The lovely okobo you and mother bought me for my last birthday, father," she explained, "they are beautiful, but I should have worn something more sensible for a day on my feet."

He smiled, "It's not like you to not be sensible, Fuu-chan. And Kuu-chan, what about you?"

"Fuu-san and her friends are very tiring!" Kuu groaned very convincingly, causing their father to laugh heartily from the driver's seat.

"They're very good friends, though, aren't they, Fuu-chan?" Mr Hououji encouraged, winking at his younger daughter.

"Hikaru-san and Umi-san and Kuu-oneesama are very good friends to me, father, you're right," Fuu said, giving him the best smile she could muster. "Kuu-oneesama and I have already eaten a lot today and we're very exhausted, is it okay with you and mother if we just go to bed when we get home, father?"

He looked surprised, but he tilted the mirror back to a normal driving position and he took the turning to their street, "That's no problem, Fuu-chan. We just want you two to be happy and healthy, of course. It's great to see you had such a fun day together."

Kuu squeezed Fuu's arm meaningfully, and Fuu smiled at her.

"You don't feel right, do you, Kuu-oneesama?" Fuu asked quietly, entering their shared bathroom to brush her hair next to her sister.

Kuu set her hairbrush down on the counter next to her basin, "You're right, Fuu-san. Nothing feels quite right since I came back from New Cephiro. I know it's only been a few hours - does it fade? Will I feel better?"

Fuu shook her head, unaware that Kuu envied her beautiful golden curls and wished she'd grow it out, "Cephiro changes you, Kuu-oneesama, and I'm sorry for not telling you that before we went."

There was a long silence, and Fuu was afraid that she'd changed her sister's life for the worse by telling her this or even taking her in the first place, but Kuu finally said, "I'm okay with this. I just know there's somewhere better out there, and you're happy there. I suddenly understand why you've been how you've been ever since you got back. Although I'll never understand the way you coped when you came back the first time. That must have been horrifying."

"It was for the best," Fuu said quietly, and she smiled weakly, then went about brushing her teeth.

This awkwardly ended the conversation for them, so they had a little tearful laugh and a goodnight hug in the bathroom, and went their separate ways into their bedrooms.

Fuu stared at her phone until she fell asleep. She had a fake entry for Ferio in her address book, and she often stared at it wistfully, wishing he even had a voicemail she could call and listen to his voice on the message when it was out of service in New Cephiro.

Fuu sighed and rolled onto her back, plugging her phone into its charger on her nightstand. She knew that could never be arranged - modern technology flat-out refused to work in New Cephiro, and she couldn't exactly expect Ferio to get a connection out there. She didn't even know how far away New Cephiro was in terms of space or even time, so how could she possibly expect for any of that to work, even with satellites and microwaves and long range frequencies?

She woke up late the next morning to find a large envelope pushed under her door. On the envelope was a note from her father, saying that he did his best to take some photos from them on the news report he'd managed to catch online after they went to sleep last night.

Fuu grinned and tore open the manila envelope, finding some large prints of herself, Umi and Hikaru, printed out on her father's best photo paper with crisp inks. There was one at the back with Kuu included, and another with the three of them hugging her sister, all looking so happy to have her there. Fuu smiled - these were fantastic.

Fuu snapped some photos of the prints with her mobile phone, and proceeded to email them to both Umi and Hikaru, who were equally excited. Umi's parents had managed to do the same, though not to the same quality as Fuu's tech-savvy father, and she sent those around too. Fuu discovered that she also had an email from her father containing the same pictures, so she raced to her computer to turn it on and view them on the big screen.

He had also included a link to the video broadcast that could still be seen on the NHK World website, so Fuu forwarded those to Umi and Hikaru as well. Kuu knocked on the door, having heard Fuu's computer declare to the world that it was booting up, and they sat together and watched the news report from the day before.

The sisters eventually descended the stairs for breakfast, thanking their father profusely for finding the video and the images he'd printed for them. They sat down to a continental European breakfast of pastries, bread, fruit and juices, and they were reminded of the large breakfast the day after the wedding. Mr and Mrs Hououji did not notice Kuu and Fuu shooting each other knowing glances, and probably would have put it down to a secret conspiracy developed in their two daughters' newfound strong friendship.

The weekend passed, and the school week started again. Fuu found herself wondering how she would dress in New Cephiro if she lived there, a train of thought brought on by scrutinising herself in the mirror while she tied the aqua bow of her school uniform at the neck, and then obsessively smoothed out the white collar and black dress until she was satisfied that it was crease-free. She couldn't possibly leave the house if she were less than presentable - she was a princess now, after all.

Fuu wasn't aware of the pleased little smile on her face as she descended the stairs for breakfast, but Kuu was, and she gave her sister a little nudge as they poured themselves drinks at the breakfast bar. Fuu snapped out of her little daydream and sat eating her breakfast - this morning it was more traditionally Japanese, and it featured some of her mother's best cooking. She was particularly grateful for the filling bowl of rice and the side of grilled fish, for she knew she'd need a lot of stamina to get through the day without daydreaming too much about New Cephiro and her new status there.

She and Kuu took the train together, although Kuu left at an earlier station to meet a friend. Fuu continued on the line and met up with Hikaru and Umi again at Otemachi. It wasn't particularly on their way, but they all left home early to make sure they could get the same train from Otemachi to CLAMP School, and they didn't bemoan the extra few yen on their tickets for a few more minutes together.

"Did you guys daydream all weekend too?" Umi asked of Hikaru and Fuu, both of whom nodded before she'd even finished speaking.

Hikaru adjusted her bag on her shoulder, "Satoru-oniichan almost scolded me for not concentrating hard enough during training this weekend. Normally he never tells me off for anything."

Fuu laughed, "That's because you're too adorable, Hikaru-san. Even though we're all the same age, you're still the smallest and cutest."

"Whatever, Fuu-chan!" Hikaru responded, a big smile on her face.

The three of them disembarked the Tokyo metropolitan system to board the free-to-ride tram system that operated around the CLAMP campus. It was a long way to the first year classrooms of the high school, but it was a beautiful day, and they enjoyed standing and watching the world go by. Somehow, in the middle of the massive city of Tokyo, the CLAMP campus was green and lush, and they were pleased to see so many colours in the trees and plants they passed on the tram.

The day was vastly boring compared to the days they'd spent in New Cephiro, though it was almost refreshing to be back at school, since every vacation in New Cephiro felt like a half term holiday, long and carefree and fun.

Fuu had managed to squeeze in all of her assigned homework before her wedding, despite the excitement of the Tokyo Tower trip and the ceremony itself, but Umi and Hikaru had left theirs until the Sunday evening, and Fuu could tell by the size and presentation of the reports they handed in for the joint classes they took, that they would not be doing as well as she would from these assignments. At least Umi and Hikaru had politely stopped phoning her at the last minute for help with their homework.

Fuu had come from a private school for gifted girls, so she was able to maintain her work ethic and study habits. Umi had come from a private school for girls from prestigious families, but they did not necessarily work them hard there. Hikaru had gone to a public school - Fuu didn't like to speculate on what the teaching methods were there, in case she came across classist. She was sure, however, that students at Hikaru's school were probably made to work harder than those at Umi's school.

Fuu found herself staring out of the window for most of her computing class, although the teacher rarely mentioned when she did this, knowing full well that Fuu could probably teach most of her lessons with her eyes closed. She stared out at the red maple trees outside the window, gently swaying in the wind, and she sighed. Japan was beautiful, but it wasn't New Cephiro. That's all she could keep thinking.

Lunchtime rolled around, and Hikaru, Umi and Fuu planted themselves under the large cherry blossom tree in the middle of the high school campus's park. They sat and ate their packed lunches - Hikaru's lovingly made by her brothers, Fuu's by her mother, and Umi having made her own, the same way she had ever since she was old enough for her mother to let her.

"We should at least teach you how to make bento," Umi said to Hikaru, snapping her disposable chopsticks apart, "Then you could send your brothers off to their schools with lunchboxes that their sister made. Don't you think they'd like their cute little Hikaru to do that so they could show them off to their friends?"

"I don't know if that's how boys work, Umi-chan," Hikaru said, looking appreciatively at the lunchbox Masaru had prepared for her - it was his turn today, and it was decidedly not decorative, but very flavourful.

Umi's contained beautiful little carrot cutouts made to look like flowers, and all kinds of other decorations, while Fuu's came in at a close second. Umi obviously had more time in the morning to put hers together than Fuu's mother did for two daughters, during the time she also had to get ready and go to work with her husband, as they worked at the same research facility. Fuu had never got them to admit whether that was where they'd met, but she was fairly convinced that it was.

The lunchtime passed far too quickly, and they returned to their lessons for the afternoon, promising to meet back at the tree before they headed home at four in the afternoon. Each of them were taking different classes that day, so they wouldn't see each other again until then.

Fuu daydreamed her way through her mathematics class, but again, her penchant for studying ahead allowed her to get away with it, and even passed being called up by the teacher to explain a particular function to the rest of the class - just a glance told her which it was, and how the textbook had said to memorise it for later use.

Fuu's class finished earlier than expected, and she found herself with lots of time to think and lots of things to think about. She realised that she very much enjoyed all the subjects that would no longer be of any use to her in New Cephiro - there was no need for mathematical equations and computing skills in that beautiful alternative universe, and as a princess she would have little use to the country, other than as a decorative monarch and part-time ceremonial Magic Knight. Perhaps she could retain control over the portal and not have to choose between Earth and New Cephiro - maybe she could still have two lives and she could live with Ferio at the weekends.

No, she knew that wouldn't work. She wanted to be with him more than anything, and nothing should get in the way of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [What happened to Chapter 16?](http://camisado.tumblr.com/post/149187556878/i-took-down-the-last-chapter-of-last-train-home)


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so very long... thank you for waiting! I am actively working on this story in Camp NaNoWriMo so I hope to eventually provide the next chapter too...

Fuu decided to brief her friends on the idea anyway; living in New Cephiro and completing her education on Earth. She knew she'd fully regret not attempting to finish up before she ultimately permanently left.

Hikaru did not object to the principle, but she sighed a little and looked directly at her friend; "Fuu-chan, are you really going to finish all three years of senior high school?"

"And university, Hikaru-san," Fuu confirmed.

Hikaru shook her head, "You're married now, Fuu-chan, and you have a country to look after. You can't make Ferio wait for you forever. You need to move to New Cephiro one day."

Fuu was surprised to hear this coming from Hikaru, but she softened, "You're probably right, Hikaru-san. Thank you for being honest with me, anyway. I just have so many dreams for the future, and a lot of them are still here, even though I love New Cephiro - and Ferio, and all its people, for that matter - with all my heart.

Umi placed a hand on Fuu's arm and rubbed it comfortingly, "We know it's a confusing time for you, more than any of us, Fuu. You don't have to make a decision right away, but Hikaru is right, you can't stay on Earth forever. That's kind of part of the promise you made when you married Ferio."

Fuu turned to Umi, her eyes welling up, "Umi-san, I'm so sorry, you've been so tolerant of my wedding and my problems the entire time you've had problems of your own. You're both very good friends, and I'm sorry I get like this."

They told her she was acting silly and gave her a hug, promising to take her out for coffee and cakes. Fuu finally stopped her mini-cry and thanked them, and they made their way to a little boutique patisserie on the CLAMP campus, storing the shopping bags in a tram station locker for now.

They sat at a small table and ordered drinks - as expected, Fuu ordered a tea rather than a coffee, claiming that it went better with cake and stopped her feeling nauseous afterwards - this particular patisserie was well known for its extremely rich cakes, so Hikaru followed suit after realising it was a good idea, though Umi still opted for coffee because she liked to enjoy it when she could. Her parents often drank coffee, so she was trying to develop a better taste for it, as it seemed the grown-up thing to do.

They each ordered different cakes, promising to share so they would all get a good taste of the selection. Umi had opted for something not too sweet, given that she was more inclined towards savoury food.

They refused to let Fuu pay, forcefully stopping her from getting her purse out of her bag, and made the waiter refuse her money too when she tried to get her purse out when Umi wasn't looking.

This had made Fuu a little annoyed, but she appreciated the gesture, and she made them promise that they'd let her return the favour sometime.

Fuu waved goodbye to them both again at Otemachi and continued on her way home. She was travelling without Kuu today - Kuu had some kind of after-school club running the CLAMP School Detectives fan club or something equally as insipid. Fuu couldn't believe that someone as lovely, intelligent and sensible as her sister would be part of a fan club like this - let alone running it, but she figured that it was just one of the ways in which she and her sister differed.

Fuu entered the gates of her home using her special key, and she walked up to the house slowly. She felt a little lethargic again - she wondered if that's just how she was going to feel every time she left New Cephiro for here. She gave a half-hearted hello to her parents as she walked in the door, and excused herself upstairs to do her day's homework - which was very little, for she was Hououji Fuu, and Hououji Fuu does not particularly get a lot of homework, since she tries her hardest to do her best in class.

She laid on her bed instead and closed her eyes for a little while. She was still clutching her bag, and she tightened her grip as she saw the beautiful world of New Cephiro in front of her again. It was night time there, and it was wonderfully dark, crisp and serene, with glinting stars in the sky and a hauntingly beautiful moon. She wondered if she could navigate around it as she thought about it - she willed herself to sort of "fly" towards the castle, and she found it was possible. In her mind, she entered the castle through the docking bay, and roamed the corridors looking for Ferio's chambers. She found them, and she passed through the doors into his bedroom, where she found him fast asleep.

She smiled and imagined laying next to him on his bed, when suddenly everything felt a lot more realistic than it should do.

Fuu opened her eyes with a start and then started pinching her arm. No, she wasn't dreaming, and she wasn't daydreaming either - she had suddenly appeared in Cephiro, in Ferio's bed. He mumbled and rolled over, and then he woke suddenly with wide eyes, looking her up and down as if she were an impostor.

"Fuu, this is a nice surprise. It is very much a surprise, though. What happened? Is this your school uniform?"

Fuu opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, and panicked. How was she going to get home? Would she have to return via the Tokyo Tower? She'd managed to teleport here from her house, which was nowhere near Shiba Park, so she wasn't sure how it was going to work.

"Fuu?" Ferio asked, laying a hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry, Ferio, I've come here by mistake. I don't know how it happened. Not that I don't want to be here, of course, but I didn't intend to be here. I was just investigating New Cephiro, you know, the way I can when I close my eyes? Oh, my gosh, I hope time has frozen in Tokyo. Hikaru-san and Umi-san would be so mad if they knew I'd come here on my own."

Ferio realised that Fuu was starting to panic, so he sat up and pulled her into a protective hug until she stopped mumbling with her mad monologue. Eventually, Fuu raised her hands to place them on the arms around her, and she stared intently at the door, expecting someone to burst in and accuse her of ruining the sanctity of the trio of the Magic Knights by coming alone.

"I need to go home, Ferio, I have homework to do and I have school tomorrow," Fuu added finally, glad that she was focused on the most important things in life.

"Homework? That sounds like it sucks. Why don't you do it here, then you have more time at home for whatever it is people in your world do after school or work?"

Fuu sighed, and said, "So how do I explain to my parents, then, why I'm not spending any time on my homework? Don't you think they'll find that a little odd?"

Ferio pulled her down to lay with him, and she didn't resist, "I don't know what business of theirs it is, anyway. I like this dress, it's very cute on you. It's very different from your old one. I do miss the green a little, though, but your eyes have always more than made up for that."

Fuu felt herself getting all giddy again, the way she did when Ferio talked that way, and she allowed herself to be kissed and cuddled for the next couple of hours. It was relaxing, anyway, and she liked to relax with Ferio. He always made her feel calm and collected.

Her mind was still racing, though. How was she meant to get back?

"What can you see when you close your eyes, Fuu?" Ferio asked, hoping he was helping.

Fuu said nothing, but closed her eyes and concentrated. "Shiba Park. That's no good."

"Shiba Park?" Ferio asked, "So where is that in relation to your house?"

Fuu waved her hand - "That's miles and miles away, that's no good to me."

He thought for a few long moments, and then said, "Well, don't you normally see the castle from a distance when you're at home in Tokyo? From the location of the actual portal?"

Fuu nodded, "Yes?"

"So you're currently seeing the other side of the portal in Tokyo? Is that what's at Shiba Park?"

Again, Fuu nodded.

"So what did you do to make yourself appear in my bedroom?"

Fuu considered this, and then she said, "Well, I kind of imagined myself flying through the air to New Cephiro Castle, and then I flew through the castle and into your chambers. Then, when I opened my eyes again, I was here."

Ferio pulled her hand up and held it in his, caressing her soft skin. His hands were also surprisingly soft - although Fuu realised that he had worn gloves the entire time he had handled a weapon, so they were strong, but in no way calloused or scarred. "So Fuu, if you fly yourself over your town of Tokyo, to your house, into your own bedroom, will it take you back to where you were?"

Fuu could tell by his fascination in her hand and the tone of his voice that he didn't want her to leave, but he knew she was a little distressed and needed to go home. She moved onto her side and snuggled up to him again, laying her hand on his chest, "That might work, Ferio, but I don't think I want to try it straight away. I might want to stay here with you for another hour or so."

He had kept hold of her hand, and he fingered the gold ring residing on it, "When are you going to live here with me, Fuu?"

Her face saddened, "It's going to be a couple of years yet, Ferio. I just want to get school out of the way. I'm only sixteen."

He sighed, and he rubbed his forehead with his free hand, "I know, Fuu, it's just going to be hard to wait so long. I will wait, of course. It's no problem, for you."

"I can come and visit you more often now I've figured out how this works," Fuu added, struck with slight panic that she needed to strike a compromise and placate Ferio with promises that she'd try harder to be with him. "I want to see you just as much as you want to see me, Ferio. I'll do my best to come as often as possible. I probably need to arrange it with Hikaru-san and Umi-san, though. Every day after school, how wonderful would that be? We can come for days, now the portal is fixed, and then we can go back..."

Ferio smiled, and he turned to face her, "I'm just being selfish, Fuu. I'm sorry that I can't do more to be with you, but I can't travel to your world the way you can visit me here all the time. I'm sorry if I upset you."

Fuu propped herself up on her elbows and looked down into his eyes. She smiled too, and she traced the scar across his nose before planting a kiss on his lips, "It's okay, Ferio. We're married, so we should really be spending more time together. I understand."

Fuu didn't dare to leave Ferio's suite while she was there, but she did go out to the lounge and read up on her homework while Ferio pulled one of the untouched books from his shelves and read that quietly on the little sofa, next to her. Fuu thoroughly enjoyed the experience, although it felt very surreal to be reading up on computer user interface theory while sitting next to a prince in a country with no electricity. From time to time, Ferio squinted over at what she was reading, but knew he would never be able to understand the text - no matter how similar in structure it was to Cephiran script - although he did enjoy looking at the pictures and photographs, and marvelled a little at the kinds of things his wife was interested in and understood so intricately.

"Do many girls study this kind of thing?" Ferio asked eventually, as he saw Fuu get to what he thought might be the end of a chapter.

Fuu looked up at him and adjusted her glasses, as they had started sliding down her nose as she read, "No, not compared to the number of boys that study it, but my school tries to make sure that there are equal numbers in each class. The school thinks equality is very important, which I think is nice."

"Equality?" Ferio asked, curious, even though he knew he should be letting her get on with her reading.

Fuu smiled and closed the book, holding the page with her thumb at the bottom of the spine, "Yes, to make sure all men and women are treated equally, but also people of different races, different sexual orientations, disabilities, and things like that."

Ferio thought about this for a little while, and then he said, "It's kind of sad that your world has to try hard to make that happen, isn't it?"

She laughed a little, "Yes, I do keep telling you, even though Earth is technically advanced, we are still lacking in some areas that New Cephiro has all figured out already."

Ferio allowed Fuu to get back to her reading - she was at the end of the chapter indeed, but she was just starting to look at the recap questions. Ferio asked her to read out the questions to him, while pointing out the sentence she was reading out, to see if he could start to understand the Japanese script. Fuu was amused, so she indulged him, but he didn't particularly understand any of the questions, and his expression grew more and more confused as Fuu tried to explain the Japanese written language to him.

"Four alphabets?" Ferio asked, and then he flopped backwards on the sofa, his head hanging over the back, "We have one in New Cephiro. I don't understand how you can know all of these."

"Well," Fuu added, "two of them are phonetic syllables, but the complicated one means you have to learn about two thousand of them before you can read most things."

"Ridiculous," said Ferio, and he smiled at her, "Your people are amazing to have to learn all that, and having so many people that speak the language."

"One hundred and twenty-six million of us in my country and we all speak Japanese as a first language, pretty much," Fuu said, trying to hide her amusement as Ferio tried to comprehend such a large number.

"So that's..."

"Vastly more than in New Cephiro, yes, Ferio. Maybe about two hundred times as many people as New Cephiro. But, our country is also much bigger than yours."

Ferio sat contemplating this for a while, still staggered by the magnitude of the place Fuu came from - she hadn't even broken it to him that the planet was much more vast than Japan, too. "Bring me a book, next time, please, Fuu, so I can learn more about Japan."

"Maybe some children's books and some photographic guides," Fuu said, nodding, "Since most other books will have a lot of text in them. I'll take a look next time I go shopping with Hikaru-san and Umi-san."

There was a long silence.

"Oh, god, they're going to be so mad. We can't tell them I was here. Nobody can know I was here."

"You mean you won't tell them before you come again? You should get things like this off your chest, Fuu. You know they won't appreciate it if you're not upfront with them. Especially Umi - I think Hikaru is very easily forgiving."

Fuu nodded, and she drew him in for a hug. They stood there for what felt like an age, and then they kissed. And then they kissed some more. Fuu wasn't sure what was going on, but she was feeling extremely strange, a sensation she'd never felt before deep down in her body, and she threw her bag down on the floor and kissed Ferio all the more passionately.

When they came up for air, Fuu said, "Do we still have some of those little things Kuu-oneesama gave me?"

Ferio nodded - he'd hidden them away in a drawer for safe keeping.

•••

Fuu had a cheerful glow to her when she went down for dinner with her parents and sister, which surprised them, giving the gloomy demeanour she had exhibited when she had returned home that evening. She was a little disappointed that the wonderful healing properties of New Cephiro hadn't eased the aching caused by first-time lovemaking, but she couldn't let that bother her; she was a woman now, and women were strong and tolerant of these kinds of things.

Kuu had some suspicions, and she collared her sister when they returned to their rooms after helping their parents clear the table, wash the dishes, and pack them away. She pulled Fuu into her own room, a pastel-coloured purple affair full of fluffy cushions and slightly too many cuddly toys. The crowning glory of Kuu's bedroom was the large plush peacock sat in the corner with a delicately embroidered tail, something their parents had commissioned for Kuu's birthday many years ago and had frightened Fuu half to death as a small child.

Fuu obediently sat down on Kuu's bed, which was far too soft for her, and had a pink blanket sat on top of it. "What is it, Kuu-oneesama?"

"Fuu-san, you went to see him, didn't you? On your own."

Fuu looked down at her hands, and then looked her sister in the face; she had to admit this to Hikaru and Umi soon, so she might as well admit it to Kuu, "Yes, I did. I'm sorry, it was an accident."

Kuu placed her hands on top of her sister's, "You have that look about you, Fuu-san, that something big has happened to you. Something big did happen to you, right?"

Fuu averted her eyes, "I...it just happened so quickly, but it was what we both wanted." She looked up into her sister's eyes and saw that Kuu was shocked. "W-ww-wait, Kuu-oneesama, that isn't what you thought?"

"No, I thought...I don't know, I didn't think it was this, I thought maybe it was something like this, but nothing this big. Baby sister, this is crazy."

Fuu sat in silence, feeling very awkward but unable to escape due to Kuu's firm grip on her hands.

"Could you be pregnant?" Kuu asked after a long pause, "I mean, did you-"

"We used one of those stupid things you hid in my kimono," Fuu reassured her, extremely flustered.

Kuu nodded, "Good, good, that's good."

"Kuu-oneesama, where did you get them?"

Her older sister waved one hand, "The school nurse hands them out to most girls in the second year and onwards, whenever we go for a physical exam. I just held on to them."

Fuu stared thoughtfully at the duvet cover.

It finally clicked for Kuu, "Oh, no, no no no, you mean you want to get some more? I don't know how you'd hide that. You'd really want to go to a pharmacy nowhere near our place or our school."

Fuu was by now extremely uncomfortable with the conversation, and pleaded Kuu to let her go back to her room and worry about how to break the bigger worry of how to explain to Umi and Hikaru that she had gone to New Cephiro on her own. Kuu argued that they ought to understand, and there were bigger concerns here, like how Fuu was only sixteen and Ferio was allegedly more like twenty, which made it illegal in Japan, but Fuu didn't see how that was an issue given that the act in question hadn't taken place in Japan, and Ferio couldn't possibly be located by local law enforcement in order to be prosecuted.

She returned to her room to consider how to speak to Hikaru and Umi, but her mind was on other things - like when she'd get the opportunity to do it again. She stopped herself from thinking about it too much, as the memories just made her want to "accidentally" appear in his bedroom again, and she surely wasn't ready for a second round. She giggled, slightly ashamed that it had taken over her thoughts.

Fuu decided that the best idea would be to ask Umi and Hikaru to meet her an hour earlier at Otemachi, and for them to go to the coffee shop at the nearby park to discuss something she was worried about. Both Umi and Hikaru messaged her back with concern, but Fuu asked them not to worry, and said that she'd speak to them in the morning. She continued to receive messages from both of them asking her not to be so silly and spill the beans, but she stuck to her guns.

Fuu had a long and restless night attributed to some very realistic dreams reminiscent of that afternoon's activities, and she got up several hours earlier than normal in order to take a very literal cold shower. She was still glowing, but she felt awful after such broken sleep, and she hoped that the meeting in the café went well, and that the day's lessons were not too challenging. She had to up her game from yesterday, too. She couldn't just daydream her way through the day today, even if she had something new and oh so very exciting to think about.

She tried to use the bathroom as quietly as possible, but as she towelled herself off, she heard Kuu stirring in the room the other side of the bathroom, and she rushed to lock that door, as she'd forgotten this time round. She heard Kuu very quietly asking her name by the door handle, but she remained silent, pretending that she hadn't heard her.


End file.
